Crash Bandicoot: Future Frenzy
by BeatrixDiSanti
Summary: In a distant future where heroes and foes share the same quotidian life, Crash was ensured that his heroic deeds were already fulfilled. However, little did he know that a certain scientist will soon return from his almost lifelong punishment, and strikes back to achieve his new vengeance in mind...
1. The Beginning

_**Author's Comments:** Hello everybody! I eventually came back from my writing hiatus, and although I told my readers that the new CB fan fic would presumably come around July, I recently decided to anticipate it since I've gained plenty of free time after I finished school. Just to warn you that this story is actually the third installment, meaning that the prequel to this one won't be revealed to prevent spoilers. The reason why I didn't start writing the second instead is because I still have no concepts for the plot until now, and to avoid any inconvenience between the two fan fics, I took this following action to keep going with this story. **NOTE:** The chapters can become a little confused and unexplained when it comes to former events._

_Thanks for reading this firstly, and you all may enjoy now. :)_

* * *

**Chapter 1**

Have you ever wondered why heroes always had a never-ending cycle on trying to stop the bad guys?

I did. But things did change. In fact, quite significantly.

The course of 22 years has passed by, and the Wumpa Islands were now considered to be one of the biggest economic centers to be known worldwide. The population has incredibly increased to threefold in the past two decades, as well peace being settled among the mutant inhabitants after another persistent defeat from one of the greatest evil and experienced scientists; Dr. Neo Cortex. Sentenced to life in prison for his latest plan almost succeeding to world domination, the residents of Wumpa Islands were now able to sleep and move on with their lives, without always being interrupted by his upcoming malignant schemes.

But that, of course, didn't give an exception to our high-spirited marsupial hero; in the last fifteen years, Crash Bandicoot has moved with his new family to the suburbs of Wumpa City, where they were forced to abandon N. Sanity Island due to terrible and unmemorable events that happened in there. Nevertheless, despite all these modifications and hard decisions, everything has improved over the years as the Bandicoot family stayed happy with their current life in Wumpa Island, and now they were even more relieved for having Cortex eventually out of their way.

It was actually a pleasant Friday evening, and inside the old tree house, Cade Bandicoot and his best friend Tymon Tiger were working on a school project for the science fair that was scheduled for next Tuesday. Both excited, the teenage bandicoot with a hazel and a green eye, dressed into a dark-blue jacket, jeans and cool-looking shoes, with even a bandicoot tail that reaches to the ground and black hair with a small ponytail on trendy, was grinning in utter triumph for almost finishing his flawless project. Tymon, on the other hand, an orange tasmanian tiger with light-brown hair, dressed into a red shirt, nut-brown shorts and red and white boots, was looking at him with his golden eyes as he was somewhat insecure in regards to their work's safety.

"Cade, are you sure creating a volcano of nitroglycerin is a good idea?" He asked as he couldn't get his eyes off its crater, which was still empty.

"Relax, Ty." Cade no more or less reassured as he held a test-tube with a bit of nitro liquid inside it. "You just worry too much."

"Well, if nitro wasn't _explosive_, I wouldn't have been this cautious." Ty urged.

"Dude, my dad handled with nitro crates when he was younger and he didn't die." He rolled his eyes. "Now, stop being a chicken and help me here."

Going after his orders, the tasmanian tiger picked up both the goggles which were laid upon the table and handed some to him, not hesitating to immediately put them on his eyesight before his friend could come up with something worse.

"Ready to blow this baby up?" Cade smirked as he finished putting the goggles, grabbing the test-tube as he was carefully turning it down so that a drop of nitro could enter into the crater. "You better move away if you don't want to get hurt."

"You're crazy..." Ty remarked.

"I was already born crazy."

Suddenly, an acquainted voice called for the teenage bandicoot as two familiar figures stopped walking towards the tree house, whom in reality they were both bandicoots as well.

"Cade!" Maya shouted for being always impatient. She was a black female bandicoot whose eyes were green and her hairstyle seemed like a reddish auburn mohawk with a ponytail, and she was dressed into a pink tank top with yellow jeans, pink gloves and red sneakers. Unlike her two siblings, Maya didn't actually possess a tail, yet, she was the only one of the three who inherited her aunt's technology skills for bringing her laptop with her most of the times. The other bandicoot who went with her was also female, and her fur was orange as she had hazel eyes. The youngest of the trio, Kida was their five-year-old sister who, remarkably, was always quiet and mute, though her best quality was the fact that she was always listening to her older siblings even when they didn't notice it themselves. She was dressed into a pink pullover and black shorts with red and white shoes, and her trademark was always a pink hair bow to go figure with her short auburn hair.

"What now?" He groaned for knowing that he would miss his project's outcome.

"Mom called you for dinner! And she even told me that if you don't appear in five minutes, she's going to give you an ear pull." She added.

"It's not fair! Me and Ty were almost done with this!" Cade protested.

"Sorry dude, but if I was you I'd obey your mom." Ty said as he withdrew the goggles and placed a large white towel upon the volcano to leave it covered. "You know how parents are anyway..."

Sighing in disbelief, Cade eventually nodded in agreement as he also removed his goggles and put them on the table next to the other reserved material to be later used to finish the project, and left the tree house with Ty as both climbed down the wooden stairs to the yard's ground.

"Well, I have to go too." He sighed after glancing at the trio and, though secretly, smiling at Maya. "My father always hates seeing me past 8 PM and I don't want to go through another laundry punishment, so... yeah. See you soon, Cade!" And he left rushing towards his house.

"Poor guy, I sometimes wonder how he can live with his dad who even speaks in third person..." Cade remarked to his sisters.

"As far as I'm concerned to know also, we better keep moving before our dad comes home." Maya reminded him as he and Kida walked together towards their house. Eventually entering into the kitchen, their mother, who was still holding some dishes to lay the table, gazed at them with that usual non-impressive look on her face.

"There you are." Amelia stated, who was now dressed into a white sweater with its sleeves pulled back, black tight shorts, lilac lady shoes without heels and larger earrings to fit with her voluminous auburn hair. "Since you all arrived just in the right time, help me here."

"Mom, why do you always call me whenever I'm about to test the best part?" The teenage bandicoot pointed out as he offered himself to hold the dishes. "I sense that you always do it purposely..."

"You can finish it on Monday, Cade." She simply said for having her mind focused on her task. "Why such hurry?"

"It's because I want to win this science fair so that I can show Edmund who's boss." He replied with rivalry in his voice.

That kind of response alerted Amelia on something. "You aren't going to use nitro or whatever alike in your school project, are you?" She looked at her son in the eye as she placed her hands on her hips, serious.

"Sure... sure not!" Cade lied as he exchanged a huge fake smile.

"Good, because you do know that me and your father have already talked about this." As soon as she finished her sentence, the four bandicoots began to hearken a familiar motorcycle noise coming out from outside, as they also perceived the person who might've just arrived home after work. Always being the first one to welcome the head of the family, Kida raised her ears in excitement and immediately ran towards the front door, where in the moment the door barely opened she grasped his leg.

"Daddy!" She squealed in joy as she still wasn't releasing his limb. Smiling brightly, Crash picked up the small child into his arms.

"Hey little one." He laughed as he softly ruffled her short hair. Amelia also smiled and walked until them to give a kiss on his cheek.

"How was work, honey?" She asked as she held Kida to put her again on the ground.

"As usual, but I'm starving." He said as he removed his sunglasses and took off his black motorbike jacket to put on the coat rack. Now much older, Crash was dressed into larger jeans and had two golden earrings on his right ear, though he still kept his old brown gloves and red boots with a Wumpa fruit necklace that was given to him years ago.

"Well, the dinner's ready." Amelia urged as she was hungry as well. After the other two teenage bandicoots greeting their father and sitting on their accustomed places to start eating, the dinner was actually occurring pretty well until the adult female bandicoot noticed that Cade was only staring thoughtfully at his plate without even grabbing the spoon.

"Cade, why you aren't eating your soup?" She inquired.

"There's a fly in it." He pointed at it with his fingernail. This, of course, didn't help his sister to not enjoy his intimidation.

"Why? Are you afraid that the fly will eat you?" Maya teased by raising her eyebrow.

"At least I'm not like someone who is always connected to Facebook 24 hours per day and that writes an entire diary talking about her boyfriend..." He rubbed it into her face.

"I don't even have a boyfriend!" She huffed as she folded her arms.

"Of course not, I almost forgot that you had a crush on Jack Black." Cade sneered.

"Enough!" Amelia ordered as she began to get tired of their fights. "Can't we just spend a family dinner without you two always picking on each other?"

"She started first." He pointed at Maya with his thumb.

"Well, here's the thing kids;" Crash spoke as he glanced at them. "If you two keep fighting and insulting each other, then there will be no surprise for this next Saturday." He briefed. His last sentence is what has finally stopped the twins' argument at long last.

"A surprise?" Maya slightly widened her eyes in utter curiosity. "What is it, dad?"

"If it's a trip to somewhere, then I want to go to the Horror House." Cade suggested. "But since we aren't on Halloween yet, I think I'll prefer the zoo."

"Oh, I know! Can we go to the museum, please?" She pleaded.

"The museum is boring! Last time we went there, I slept awake the whole time just to look at the Mona Lisa picture."

"No, it's not!"

"Yes, it is!"

"KIDS!" Amelia shouted again before she'd have another tantrum. "Let your father finish." She added after calming herself down.

"Actually, it's none of your suggestions that we were planning to take you." Crash declared.

"Oh..." Both lowered their ears in discouragement.

"But what if it would be a visit to your Aunt Coco's house?" Amelia eventually winked at them to reveal the surprise.

"YEAH!" The trio shouted in enthusiasm as they nodded all together in agreement.

"We don't go there in months, so I can't wait." Maya smiled.

"This way I'm going to eventually show my aunt that I answered correctly all the math questions she gave me last time... with the help of this wonderful solution book, of course." Cade grinned as he discreetly kissed the object.

"Hey, that's cheating!" She scoffed.

"You don't say." He rolled his eyes.

"All right then." Crash smiled after finishing his plate some minutes earlier. "You better sleep early tonight, guys! Because I'm already warning that the one who stays asleep in bed with the excuse that the alarm clock got broken will be forgotten... 'cause I don't have fault that I have short memory."

"Very funny, dad." Cade folded his arms, raising an eyebrow at him. "You were referring to me, weren't you?"

"Of course, you're just irreplaceable." He smirked.

And soon after the dinner was over, the adult bandicoots and the trio finally headed themselves towards their bedrooms, where an hour later everyone eventually began to sleep before departing tomorrow.


	2. Escape and Visits

**Chapter 2**

Inside one of the largest underground prisons where the most high intelligent felons are known there, located in Cortex Island, it was in fact an exception when in the past decade the evil scientists also began to pay the same price. Though, over the years, Doctor Neo Cortex was still the only one who wouldn't still by nature surrender so easily; arrested into a particular cell ever since the past sixteen years, it wasn't now that the mischievous scientist was about to give up his soon new getaway.

With the security guards spread all around the prison doors, of course not forgetting the relevant detail of also bringing weapons with them for self-protection, an anesthetic gas suddenly began to reach everyone's noses as it quickly filled the entire hallway. Slowly losing their senses and the sleep weighing their heads, the security guards started to faint one by one as they ended up falling asleep on the ground, now disarmed for enough time for a certain prisoner to eventually run free from his cell.

And, in the moment they all woke up from the timeless drug sleep at long last, a guard didn't even think twice before firing the emergency alarm; but for much action they would take to catch and bring him back, it was already too late.

* * *

"Cade! Come on!" Crash called his son as he and Amelia just finished putting the luggage into the jeep*. It was a bright Saturday morning to start with, and the trio couldn't have been any more excited to leave their home at least for a good while. However, things were starting to get a little delayed thanks to the black-haired teenage bandicoot playing around with his looks.

"What in Bob Marley's name are you doing?" Maya frowned her eyebrow as she walked to her brother and saw him posing himself in front of a mirror.

"Trying out my new hairgel." Cade replied after closing a black plastic bottle and placing the cream on his mohawk to figure it out.

"Cade, you aren't going on a date." She added as she face palmed.

"Hey, at least I want to be formal." He urged tediously.

"Whatever. Just hurry up, mom and dad are already waiting for us, and you unfortunately know how dad is a bad driver."

"How I wish that wasn't true."

Eventually ready, the bandicoot trio headed themselves towards the entrance and closed the front door, where moments later they finally arrived to the jeep as they sat on their usual back seats. Like almost inevitable, all the three brought a thing with them to not get bored throughout the long trip; Cade, for some reason, brought another mini mirror so that he could distract himself on playing around with his hair - his most detached flaw is that he's a little too self-centered sometimes -, Maya has brought her inseparable laptop with its battery charged so that she could do something along the way, and Kida brought a bunny plushie that Crash has given to her in her last birthday.

Glancing into the rearview mirror by chance, the male adult bandicoot raised his eyebrows in surprise. "Is it just me, or Cade does have a new hairstyle?" He asked.

"He just bought another new hairgel." Maya explained, her eyes half-closed for not being impressed.

"Well, this way I'll remind him to put makeup next time." Crash snickered.

"Oh, come on! Looks like this is the first time you guys see me adjusting my hair!" Cade folded his arms.

"Honey, we already know you're a fan of your hair, but please don't start your dramas." Amelia said as she turned her head at him for a moment. Maya also sniggered as she simply showed her tongue at her twin brother. Kida, on the other hand, kept cuddling her plush toy.

"All right, everybody! Let's eventually get outta here. This after the safety belts being all placed, of course." He briefed before putting his foot on the accelerator.

* * *

Three hours of travel sure did take some good time to arrive until the other side of Wumpa Island. As the Bandicoot family eventually reached to Coco's house, which was also similar to their house in terms of appearence and for the fact that neighbourhood wasn't also missing there, Cade was still asleep like a rock on his seat for getting tired of always looking at himself through the mini mirror at last. Shortly after the trio perceiving that the jeep was finally parked next to their aunt's house, Maya and Kida were the first ones as Crash and Amelia were the second to leave the vehicle, though of course the young black female bandicoot didn't forget to annoy her brother to wake him up.

"Hey, Earth calling Cade!" Maya shouted as she snapped her fingers. "Time to wake up!"

He yawned and stretched. "Have we arrived? About time... just wish you didn't wake me up from my beautiful dream." Cade stated as he finally opened the door and left the seat.

"Let me guess, you dreamed about being a rap singer or becoming into a famous billionaire with a golden necklace with your name on it." She suggested.

"How did you know?" He raised an eyebrow. Suddenly, an acquainted feminine voice just called for them.

"There you are."

In the instant the trio barely turned their heads at that familiar person, Cade, Maya and Kida became also surprised to see another family member present in there; Crunch Bandicoot. He was standing next to Coco and, over the years, both have naturally aged at such rate that their physical appearences were the only aspects that have changed - their personalities, not so much.

The tall, brawny burgundy bandicoot with a right metal arm and some scars spread around his body, gazed at the kids for a moment and smiled widely as he walked to them; at least he looked well-disposed today.

"My nephews!" Crunch exclaimed happily as he no more or less opened his huge, muscular arms. "Give your Uncle Crunch a hug!"

"Oh, no..."

Hugging the three all together, the trio began to groan for help as their uncle's big arms were starting to suffocate them without him realizing.

"Uncle Crunch...!" Maya quietly spoke, despite that she tried several times to get out of him without effect. "We always love your hugs, but please... you're strangling us to death!"

"Now I understand what dad meant to say by 'crunch hugs'..." Cade added as he already wasn't feeling anything.

"Well, well! Looks like none of you has taken any of the vitamins I gave to you." He laughed. "Oh and, Cade, you aren't any better." Crunch said before eventually releasing the trio at long last.

Cade, on the other hand, fell on his knees desperate enough to get some oxygen. "I... can... finally... breathe..."

"Long time no see, sis." Crash smiled as he and Coco exchanged an affectionate sibling hug. Her blonde ponytail was larger, and she wasn't wearing her old blue dungarees like she used to anymore.

"So glad to see you again, big brother." She avowed while keeping her sweet smile on her face. Amelia also hugged her, and then greeted Crunch who later reminded her of something.

"Where's my brother, Rick?" The black adult female bandicoot asked her, surprised for actually not seeing him around there.

"Oh, my husband went for a few days with Rock." Coco briefed, sighing. "You know how military pilots are always busy, sadly."

"Yeah, and I've decided to visit her since you guys were also coming down here." Crunch shrugged.

"Well, as long as everyone is safe and sound, that alone is enough for me." Crash chuckled to change the airs for a bit. Meanwhile, Coco took a glance at her nephews whom were approaching to them, and couldn't resist to give a small kiss on the twins' cheeks.

"And how has been my amazing niece?" She asked Maya as she placed an arm around her shoulder.

"Great, Aunt Coco!" She answered happily. "I already know how to hack some systems just by using codes."

Cade coughed on purpose. "Like _MySpace_..." He coughed again.

"I knew you'd reach there! I'm so proud of you." Coco smiled cheerfully at her, and then turned to Cade. "What about you, shorty? Have you answered all the questions I challenged for you, or did you eventually give up for your laziness?" She inquired with a playful tone.

"Right here, ma'am." He handed her the paper, and he grinned as he raised his eyebrows.

"Wow, I'm really impressed." She confessed after scanning every single response. "All the answers are correct! Good boy." She ruffled Cade's black hair. "You're getting smarter, which is actually rare coming out from your old man."

"Hey..." Crash scowled at his sister while overhearing the conversation.

"Heh heh, it was nothing." Cade smiled proudly due to his smugness. Maya, on the other hand, wasn't that impressed at all.

"Cheater..." She snarled in a whisper as she folded her arms, but he couldn't care less.

"Face it, Maya; I'm her favourite nephew, and you have to admit it." He kept on.

"You are her only nephew." She smirked.

"Whatever."

Suddenly, the blonde female bandicoot gasped as she almost forgot someone; her youngest niece, Kida, who was standing in the middle of her older siblings, holding the bunny plushie in her arms. In fact, she didn't notice her earlier due to her height, and Coco didn't hesitate to bent down to pick up the small child.

"Oh, you look adorable!" She melted, and Kida began to giggle while biting softly one of the bunny's ears. She always loved people cuddling or giving her warm hugs. "You've grown so fast! She looks so much like you, Crash." She admitted.

He slightly blushed. "Heh, thanks Coco."

After talking to Crunch for a good while, Amelia walked until her husband and sister-in-law. "Well guys, what about we taking our luggage out the jeep and finally make a delicious lunch? I'm starving anyway." She suggested.

"Oh, can't wait!" Crunch licked his cheeks as he rubbed his hands out of delight. "My stomach is like a black hole, y'know."

"As long as you don't eat your plate..." Crash snickered only to joke around with him.

"Hah hah, very funny." He sneered. "You didn't change one bit, shorty."

"What we'll do next, then?" Cade asked his aunt as he was becoming bored of listening to the adults' 'uninteresting' conversation.

"Oh, right! I almost forgot. Just wait a second." Coco winked at the trio as she turned her back. "Kids!" She called out loud towards the house. "Come here! Your uncle Crash has just arrived!"

Moments later, another two young bandicoots also appeared into the local, and by logic they were the trio's direct cousins, Ethan and Rick Junior, more known as RJ by his nickname. The oldest son, with thirteen years of age, who had his fur brown like his father and a lack of tail from his mother, with green eyes and his hair colour a darkish yellow, with some specific goggles on his head for being a fanatic of airplanes - _and_ an inventor himself, too. The youngest son, who was remarkably only three years older than Kida, was also blonde but lighter, with deep blue eyes inherited from his father and a presence of a tail, with red gloves and blue shorts.

After greeting their uncles, Ethan and RJ approached the trio. All of them stood quiet for a while, this until the silence has finally vanished when the teenage inventor came up with a bright idea to enjoy their time.

"Hey Maya," He spoke, always in a good mood. "I've recently invented a new type of 'bird machine', would you like to test it with me?" He offered.

"I'd love to!" Maya beamed.

"Kida can come with us if she wants." He smiled at her in turn, and of course, the five-year-old nodded in agreement without any hesitation. Right after his sisters and cousin were gone, Cade and RJ were the only ones to stay by themselves as they blankly stared at each other.

"Well, umm..." Cade rubbed his nape, empty of ideas. "So dude, what do you wanna do?"

"I dunno." RJ shrugged. "I'd like to toss around random stuff, but that's too boring."

"Indeed." He nodded. "But don't worry, though; I already have a plan up my sleeve." He smirked as he placed an arm around the boy's neck.

"How do you mean?" He asked curiously.

"Just go get some balloons and fill them with water." Cade winked. "And then, follow me."

* * *

_*The jeep mentioned is from The Wrath of Cortex game, except that it has five seats to fit in the story. On a side note, I'm really sorry for the long wait. I got busy with some things, and again I apologize for the cliffhanger from the beginning of this chapter. I promise the next one will be larger and more Cortex related._


	3. The Scientist's Return

**Chapter 3**

The doors have opened to Cortex's castle after the greatest hit of the scientist. Finally, it was about time. Neo Cortex eventually walked through the long and sinister hallway that led up to the laboratory, the only place where he considers his real home. His new assistant, Doctor Nitrus Brio, whom formerly worked for him until the events of Crash's escape shortly after his mutation and Cortex's first defeat, was already waiting for the scientist's incoming as he standing quietly at the lab's entrance.

Without a doubt, after all these hard, everlasting years in prison, Dr. Cortex was now much taller than he was before, as well older. His way of thinking he had ever since the last twenty years hasn't - though not surprisingly -, changed at all, despite that after all the past experiences he had with his hairy archenemy he was now more used to sarcasm and dark humor.

As the scientist sat on his favourite, comfortable gray lab chair and gazed at the sky through the old glass of the window, Cortex smiled at long last. He just couldn't wait any further to start planning about his next revenge, even it meant to be the very last thing he'd do before his time would come. He wasted another precious sixteen years by staring at the flies without having any opportunities to do whatever else from his mind, and he was beyond determinated to not ever excuse that from the bandicoot.

"Dr. Cortex," N. Brio eventually spoke, his cranky voice sounding exactly like the last time he heard him. He walked towards the scientist, where he soon stopped behind the king-size chair, and bowed. "Welcome back."

Cortex, now dressed into a larger and more formal white lab coat that somehow gave him an emperor appearance-wise, looked at his old partner with the smile still on his face. "Ah, finally." He avowed while loosening a hopeful sigh. "I'm back to my beautiful castle."

"Thanks... to me." He wanted to add, although his voice initially broke for fearing that Cortex would mouth at him. "If it wasn't for me to release the anesthetic gas, you wouldn't have the chance to free yourself."

"Yes, you're right, N. Brio." The scientist agreed, which remarkably surprised the aged man. "This time. Now that I'm eventually free from the idiotic law, and that no one will even try to stop me again, I will enjoy my own space in attempt to finish my nemesis."

"You mean... that bandicoot?" N. Brio frowned.

"Precisely." His smile faded as he momentarily moved his chair and turned straightly at his assistant. "I still didn't forget his name until this day; Crash Bandicoot. That stupid, stinky marsupial thinks he's better than everybody else, and no more or less threw me into prison right after he was at death's door. It all just seemed too purposeful to make my luck fall downhill at such manner, but apparently he wasn't alone either. Even everybody in Cortex Island joined against me."

"I know sir, it was indeed unrighteous." He tried to console.

"But that's okay... for now." Cortex suddenly smirked as he decided to lift up from the chair, and walk for a little through the wide room. "Everyone in the Wumpa Islands will get what they really deserve. Even the innocent ones, but that bandicoot will be the first and the top one of my list. I can't wait to give him a piece of my own medicine after what I've learned and been through all these meaningless years." He snarled to let his thoughts out of his chest.

"That's... that's great to hear that you're determined, master." N. Brio said, despite that he was getting nervous for not having enough courage to tell him some certain news. "But I'm afraid that your plans won't be any more... successful."

His words stuck in the scientist's ears, and he wasn't any pleased to hear such criticism. "Excuse _me_? Are you doubting about my future, _faultless_ schemes?" Cortex demanded.

"No, no, not at all!" He immediately shook his head, since he still had that fear of being scolded from his boss. "I mean... they can be _still_ successful, just not as easy as it used to be like in the old times."

"And why's that?" He demanded again, folding his arms.

"Well..." N. Brio cleared his throat before he could explain. "The real truth is, Dr. Cortex, ever since you've been arrested underground and due to lack of personal information going around the media, the bandicoot is no longer all by himself nowadays."

"What do you mean by 'no longer all by himself'?" Cortex frowned an eyebrow, still not understanding anything relevant declared by his assistant. "Of course the rat is not alone, he still has his smart sister, the brawny guy with no brains, the talking voodoo mask whom I think is Uka Uka's saintly twin, and umm... did I miss someone else?"

"He's married, sir."

The scientist didn't even think twice before spitting his own tea from the tea-cup, and struggled to get some air since he choked as well. "_What?!_ What? How? Where? When?!" He exploded with prompt questions.

"Umm... since sixteen years ago?" N. Brio shrugged. "Okay, more closely to fifteen."

"Who he married to?" Cortex asked, now intrigued to know everything he had missed. "Oh wait, let me guess... he married to that busty blonde bandicoot, am I right?"

"Not... really." He bit his lip. "He married to Amelia Bandicoot, actually."

He spat again. "My ex-agent?!" He cried out. "This is a paradox!"

"_And_ they had children, too." N. Brio added.

"Even worse..." Cortex groaned. "But that's actually my fault for not castrating him when I had the chance, though. But still, this is _inadmissible_! How in the world my worst and skilled archenemy could marry to one of the most experienced spies from the army?! It just doesn't make sense!"

"Nothing in the world makes sense, sir."

"Shut up, N. Brio." He ordered. "It's only now I realized that your name sounds like a fetus, by the way."

"It's actually _embryo_." He rolled his eyes at him. Suddenly, a security guard knocked at the laboratory's door, and curious at the fact of receiving visits already, the scientist decided to allow the man open the door.

"Yes?" Cortex asked.

"We have a family visit for Dr. Cortex." He briefed, no more or less. "You may enter." And as the new figure stepped into the lab, the man eventually closed the door and left.

Both the scientist men couldn't believe who they were seeing right in front of their eyes. It was a teenage gothic girl, who seemed to be already on her seventeen years of age, and had spiked black hair, light-blue skin, prominent buck teeth, and spring-loaded steel bionic hands which she had ever since as a child. She also had a small N placed on her forehead just like Cortex, and though this wasn't the first time visiting him, she wasn't that excited upon the reunion after all.

"Nina!" Cortex exclaimed with happiness, smiling at her. "My beloved niece!"

"Hi, uncle." Nina merely greeted, folding her arms as her posture was always a non-impressive one.

"I don't think she's that joyful to meet you... like it has always been." N. Brio remarked.

"Of course she's happy to see me." He huffed at him. "Despite that I only remember seeing her when she was a baby..." He whispered to himself.

"Uncle, all of my life I have _always_ seen you in jail, so it's really a news flash to see that you are 'finally' free." She stated. "Or, may I say more correctly... 'escaped'?"

"Yes, it's true." Cortex urged. "I eventually managed to get away from that arduous, _horrendous_ prison, and now I'm plotting my next sweet vengeance for my unmemorable enemy."

"You're gonna fail." Nina said.

"Then why don't you help us out to get rid of him?" N. Brio suggested.

"Meh, something bizarre occurred at the Academy of Evil so I was forced to leave the school, and now I have to help my helpless uncle and his assistant who has a weird name and has barely any teeth from now." She sneered.

"Hey, watch your mouth young lady!" He defended himself.

"Hmm, I'm still amazed at how you kept your... gothic humor." Cortex annotated. "But anyway, I think you'll be pretty useful if you'd actually join us. That marsupial must pay for his deeds nevertheless."

"First of all, don't recycle your ideas over and over again." Nina spoke. "Second of all, why don't you stop being lazy and just bring the bandicoot into the lab, and try to recreate a stronger machine capable to destroy his immunity to mind control?"

"Not a bad idea." N. Brio nodded.

"I will reconsider it. Crash has always been immune to every mind controller I've known, but it's not entirely impossible to find his other weakness. Thanks for the hint, Nina." He smiled as he just had a brand new plan in mind. "N. Gin!"

The human cyborg with red hair and a missile lodged in the right side of his head, didn't hesitate to go after his call. "Yes, Dr. Cortex?" He asked.

"Go to Wumpa Island and locate the bandicoot's current house, and bring him to here." Cortex ordered, pointing his finger at the exit with the signal to not put any questions.

"Right away, my master." And N. Gin simply departed from the laboratory as he heard Cortex exchanging his evil laughter.

* * *

"Time to go back home, kids!" Crash called the trio as it was already evening. The day at Aunt Coco's house was a blast, and it was a greatest pity that it had to end so soon after all the fun they spent together.

"Thanks for the awesome pastime, Ethan." Maya smiled at her cousin as Kida did the same.

"No problem! It was a pleasure, after all." He winked.

While Coco and the others were still talking in regards to saying goodbye and such, Amelia just finished putting the luggage back into the jeep until she recalled someone. "Crash, have you seen Cade?" She asked him.

"Not for a good while... why?" He looked at her, puzzled. Before long, the two adult bandicoots hearkened from the distance a loud laughter whose voices were recognizable.

"Dude, you should've seen her face!" Cade burst out laughing like no tomorrow as RJ was also in the same condition. "When... when that balloon of water fell on that old lady's head... oh god... it was just priceless!"

"Yeah, despite that she still thought she was a ninja and hunt us down the street with a walking cane..." RJ added.

"You gotta love old people."

Suddenly, the fun immediately ceased as their parents were apparently near them enough to hear the whole conversation. "Oops."

"Ricky Junior Bandicoot, go back inside and clean your room as punishment." Coco ordered as she placed a hand on her hip and the other pointing her fingernail towards her house.

"Yes, mom..." He sighed as he had no other choice.

"And you, young man, will take a bath before even going to bed." Amelia said earnestly at Cade. "You are all wet!"

"No offense, but you do really smell like a dog..." Crash agreed.

"Thanks for your compliment, dad." He sneered.

"Yup, it's officially approved that you can't spend a day without creating trouble." Maya grinned.

"Pff, like if I always give a damn at everything that Ms. Missy says." Cade snapped it at her face, and she didn't like it one bit as she turned her face away and folded her arms.

"Well, it's time to go everybody." Crash called again to check that no one was missing, and then headed himself towards the jeep. "We had a great day, but we don't want to arrive home at midnight so we have to hurry." He urged.

"Goodbye, Aunt Coco!" Maya waved her hand after she sat on her seat and placed the safety belt. "You too, Uncle Crunch!"

"Bye bye!" Kida also waved.

"We hope to see you guys sometime again!" Coco declared as she and Crunch waved their hands as well. "Take care!"

"We will. See you all soon!" Crash shouted, and then the Bandicoot family eventually left the house to drive in direction to the way back home.


	4. Home Rumble

**Chapter 4**

The next afternoon arrived. Even though the trio stayed discouraged for already leaving their aunt's house, the truth was at least clear when they couldn't deny the fact that there was still a Sunday to enjoy before going to school. Once the Bandicoot family eventually returned to their home sweet home that night, everything ended up coming back to normal as if there was no choice to change otherwise.

It was around 7 PM, and Cade has decided to leave his bedroom to pick up something to eat from the kitchen. As he barely just finished going down the stairs, he noticed his parents at the front door, who seemed to arrange themselves some last details before even going out - despite that the problem was actually all because of Crash's jacket.

"Am I really getting that fat?" Crash asked Amelia with a concerned tone as she was trying her hardest to make him fit into the jacket.

"You need to eat less Wumpa." She told him as she finally could make it wear on him, sighing. "And being less lazy when it comes to physical exercise, too."

"But I don't have fault that my back hurts." He urged as he corrected his spine for a moment. "Ouch!"

"Right." Amelia folded her arms. "You and your excuses..."

"Hey, I'm not getting any younger." Crash said.

"Where are you guys going?" Cade eventually asked, stepping into the middle of the two as he was curious enough to know what was going on.

"Your father and I will go to a special occasion for a while." She answered. "We'll only return tonight, and since you're going to be the next man in the family, I will give you the responsibility to take care of your sisters and the house. You know, like it always has been."

This obviously thrilled the fifteen-year-old teenage bandicoot. "Of course! Don't worry, I'll take care of it and leave it brand as new until you return." He grinned in the moment his sisters also arrived after they overheard the conversation.

"Look Cade," Crash looked at his son, a bit suspected. "I know you always get excited whenever you see us leaving, but please, just do me a simple favor."

"Yes?" Cade frowned an eyebrow.

"No parties. Last time I allowed you to invite your friends, it was me who had to pay the whole damage after you almost let our house on fire." He told him.

"I agree with your father." Amelia said. "No parties today, and you better keep your word."

In dismay for his parents not allowing the best part, he sighed. "Okay, mom..."

"Good." Smiling, she bent down to give a kiss on her three children's cheek, since she was used to do that whenever she had to go somewhere. "Behave yourselves."

"We'll come back soon, guys!" Crash also smiled as he opened the door to let Amelia walk out firstly. "Oh, and..." Before he had the chance to leave the kids, he glanced at them for one more moment. "Don't go to the garage. There's TNT crates in there, just saying." He added. "Oh well, see ya later!"

After the adult bandicoot closed the door and left the house eventually, Cade, Maya and Kida exchanged a 'what-to-do' stare between themselves for an instant. But, of course, the oldest was always the one to start everything.

"Woohoo!" Cade suddenly shouted in zest. "No parents, no rules! Now that they aren't at home from now, I can do whatever I want without them telling me what to do and what not." He stated happily as he merely threw himself onto the couch of the living room.

"Cade, we're not gonna start doing trouble." Maya warned. "If mom and dad told us not to mess around, then we won't."

"You just say that to make you feel more responsible than me, don't you?" He raised an eyebrow. "As far as I know, I'm still older than you."

"Only for 4 minutes and 25 seconds." She frowned.

"Wow, I congratulate you for counting the time before you were born, my sister." Cade sneered with a silly smile. "Although it really doesn't surprise me from you..."

"Sure, sure." Maya rolled her eyes. "Well then, what about if we stop picking on each other and just turn on the TV?"

"Seems legit." He replied as he held the remote control and clicked the button to turn it on.

* * *

An hour and half later, a strange individual has appeared in underhand through the bushes of the neighbourhood. The evening was quiet and peaceful, and there was almost nobody passing near that area. It was a perfect time-attack for N. Gin, who has just recently arrived to the island after travelling non-stop ever since he left Cortex's castle. Now knowable with the exact informations regarding to Crash's house, N. Gin slowly approached towards it with caution to not get accidentally discovered by any witness.

Reaching the window, the short-structured cyborg dragged a garbage can until it without making a lot of noise, and then jumped on the can to allow himself to see properly who was inside. For his major bad luck, there was no signs of the bandicoot in there, despite that his day turned in a different way when he saw three young bandicoots lying together on the couch watching TV instead. He smirked, and as soon as he got a new plan in mind that could still satisfy Cortex's orders, he quickly left the window before the kids could turn their heads and notice him.

Still lying on the couch, Cade and his sisters were watching "How I Met Your Mother" while he was eating a bag of popcorn. Kida was eating it too occasionally, and Maya was the only one who was more distracted on texting on her laptop. The things were occurring so normally that the trio haven't thought for a moment if something was sinisterly wrong, or even a tiny bad feeling about it. That, of course, until they overheard awkward noises coming from the house all at once.

Maya's ears perked. "Cade, did you hear this?" She asked her brother.

Absent-minded by the show, he simply answered without even looking worried. "Nope, I haven't." He kept eating.

Suddenly, without them expecting, the noises came all back again as they were getting more and more powerful to ignore. Even the TV turned off out of nowhere, which eventually brought Cade into reality as Maya noticed at the distance that the cable got removed from the plug as well.

"Look!" She pointed. "Someone just pulled out the cable! We're being robbed!" She panicked. Kida got so scared that she didn't think twice before snuggling to Maya and grasping her tank top in fear.

"Don't worry, girls." Cade stood up, since he thought for a second that being a hero for a while would be a nice play for him. "I'm gonna catch the guy, and then everything will be all right just like it was before."

"And how if you don't have anything to protect yourself?" Maya folded her arms.

"Rule number one;" He raised his finger. "Always listen to the alpha, even when he's wrong. Rule number two; please only put up your questions in the end, because I never want to listen to them." He declared. "Now, follow me."

Going after his orders, Maya and Kida quietly followed him in tip-toe until the hallway. Cade became as silent as he could to try to listen carefully to the burglar's footsteps, and in the moment he was absolutely sure that he was wandering through the kitchen, his hopes immediately faded.

"Well, he's not in the kitchen." He whispered to his sisters. "I have a plan; let's separate and go to different divisions of the house. I'll go upstairs, and you two will search after him downstairs." He ordered. The girls didn't hesitate to obey as they gingerly walked off from each other. Cade put his foot on the last degree and slowly began to climb the stairs, as he also was constantly staring to the left and to the right to see if he'd catch the burglar in the eye. Though, things did turn upside down when his ears caught Maya's screaming; he all of a sudden turned his head back, and saw a stocky human cyborg in a white lab coat who seemed to be quite shorter than him in terms of height.

"I got one!" N. Gin shouted joyfully as he seized the black teenage female bandicoot and put her inside a huge mesh bag against her own will.

"Let me go!" Maya cried out repeatedly as she couldn't stop kicking and punching.

"Hey you, fat guy!" Cade yelled angrily as he just finished climbing until the top of the stairs. "Let my sister go!"

"For your information, I'm _full_, not fat!" He protested at the teenage bandicoot. "And what are you planning to do to me, you obsolete little creature? Spin me around like your old man? Hah!" He sneered.

"Funny, I think you misused the word 'little' since I'm actually taller than you." Cade smiled. "And actually... I've got a better idea." He raised his eyebrows as he just sat himself on the handrail. "You better run."

"Oh shi-"

"CRAZY IS A CRAZY DOES!" And he boosted towards N. Gin at high speed while the cyborg was despairingly trying to get out of there in time, which, unfortunately for him, didn't end up happening like he wished. Instead, his face just smashed against the wall like a mashed potato thanks to Cade's powerful kick, and eventually, released Maya as the bag just flew onto the floor.

"You _jerk_!" Maya yelled furiously as she merely kicked N. Gin's groin, and he yelped in pain.

"Not my beautiful buttons!" He whimpered. "That's it, you all are going to get it!" N. Gin cussed as he could stand up without getting seriously affected by the impact at all.

"Run!" Cade shouted as he and his sister just turned their backs and ran away from the cyborg like crazy. He wasn't happy one bit now.

"Come back here!" He picked up a broom that was fallen over there and started chasing them. Kida, on the other hand, stood watching the scene as she decided to hide herself somewhere.

"What do you want from us?" The male teenage bandicoot asked out loud as he was systematically attempting to get away from him.

"I just want to catch you for Dr. Cortex!" N. Gin urged.

"Dr. _who_?" Cade scowled, but then he had to divert his head before the broom could toss him out, and kept running around the kitchen to avoid getting caught.

"Hey, cyborg!" Maya shouted after she finished frying something on the frying pan. "Have a taste of our specialty of the house!" She threw a hot pancake at his face.

"MY EYES!" N. Gin screamed. "I can't see anything!" He panicked as he dropped the broom and began to shove everything around him, this until Maya decided to make him unconscious by hitting his head with the frying pan.

"Come on!" She held Cade's hand as the two siblings momentarily climbed up the stairs. Minutes later, N. Gin eventually woke up, now with his face burnt as he startled himself at how red it was by looking into the mirror of the hallway. Even though his mood wasn't any tiny better, he suddenly heard a recognizable voice calling for him right from the top of the stairs.

"Yo, cyborg dude!" Cade grinned. "Eat my shorts!" He showed his boxers and danced his butt at him.

"Why you little-!" N. Gin ran towards the young bandicoot's direction without tumbling the degrees by luck, and when he finally arrived until the top, he saw another hallway with no signs of the trio to be sight of.

"So... you guys want to go a few rounds by playing hide and seek." He smirked. "Well then, let's _play_!" He laughed maliciously as he brought the bag with him as well. N. Gin started to open all the bedroom's doors in attempt to catch the kids out of surprise, and in the moment he eventually thought they were anywhere to be found in that hallway, he heard some faint whispers not too far from where he was standing.

"Cade, shut up!" Maya whispered in an angry tone since he couldn't stop being restless.

"Well I'm sorry if I'm desperately trying to get some space here, I don't have fault that you're heavy!" He muttered, and barely in the instant the door got open and the two bandicoots got dragged into the bag, N. Gin leaped out of happiness.

"My mission's complete!" He stated proudly. "Now I only need to give these two to Cortex, and then I'm eventually free!" He talked to himself. Seconds later, right before he could even step on the first degree to climb down the stairs, he had forgotten another member of the trio to gather as he sighted by chance a small bandicoot with a pink pullover and a pink hair bow, who was standing still in front of the human cyborg and looking at him with sad, irresistible puppy eyes.

"Aww..." N. Gin tried his hardest to resist the infant's cuteness, but again he wasn't utterly made of steel. "Aren't you the most adorable, _cutest_ thing I've ever seen?" He bent down to rub gently under Kida's chin. "Yes, yes you are- HAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!"

_*In Paris, at an esplanade...*_

Two French guys heard N. Gin's screaming while they were drinking coffee. "Hé, avez-vous entendu cela? Je pense que c'est quelqu'un crier à l'aide. (Hey, did you hear this? I think it's somebody screaming for help.)" One of them told the other.

"Nah, je pense que c'était un de ces gars qui se sont coincés dans une toilette portative et est juste crier pour attirer l'attention. (Nah, I think it was one of those guys who got stuck in a portable toilet and is just screaming for attention.)" The other replied.

"Vraiment? (Really?)"

"Sans doute. (No doubt.)"

_*Back into the original scene...*_

N. Gin finished screaming after Kida biting sorely his hand. "Piranha!" He shouted in dread after he dropped the bag again onto the floor, and Cade and Maya eventually getting out of it as they stood up as well.

"You stay away from me!" N. Gin kept yelling hysterically as he became officially afraid of the bandicoots. Barely in the second he turned his back to escape from them, he accidentally fell in their trap as he stepped on a cube of soap and got dragged until the bathroom, where for his major dismay he ended up in the bathtub with hot water. He screamed again, and as soon as he launched himself like a rocket throughout the hallway until the stairs, he ended up this time stepping on roller skates which were purposely placed on one of the degrees.

"Bon voyage!" Cade waved his hand as he watched N. Gin going down the stairs in a radical way, although that he wasn't boosted enough to be thrown out from the door and still ended lying almost motionless on the ground.

"Oww..." He groaned in pain. Shortly after, the black-haired teenage bandicoot had a bright idea in mind to get rid of the cyborg more faster as he simply picked up a frame that was placed right next to him on the wall.

"No, don't throw the parents' wedding day picture!" Maya stopped him before he could toss it into the air.

"Oh, you're right." Cade shrugged, and then picked up the frame of when he was a baby instead. "That's better." And then he threw it at N. Gin to startle him which, not for their surprise, had enough of being inside that house and no more or less opened the door violently and screamed while running for his life through the street.

"That's right, you burglar!" He shouted to the puppet to show his pride. "Don't ever mess with the Bandicoot family, because despite we're crazy, we're the best!" Cade avowed determinately as Kida showed her tongue at the leaving cyborg.

"Cade, don't you think it's better to call the police?" Maya suggested.

"Hmm... nah."

"How so? He attacked us with a broom and escaped like a chicken for crying out loud!" She insisted.

"Relax, Maya. If that guy escaped like a chicken is because it's not worth to call the cops anymore." Cade said. "In fact, I'm totally sure he won't even dare to step here again, all thanks to me of course. Speaking of... whatever, when mom and dad will return?"

She gasped. "They're coming soon!" Maya alerted. "Quick, let's rearrange the house the way it was before, and now!"

"Right away!"

And then the trio spent another ten minutes to put everything back in its place and cleaning the damage, even though it really didn't last long before they heard their parents' jeep parking in front of the garage and eventually walking towards the entrance.

"All right, Amelia, I'll admit." Crash spoke, still unaware at everything that recently happened. "The session was the most boring thing I've ever been in my life, the people there only talked and talked without even having the idea on what they were referring about, and to be honest I couldn't help but fall asleep twice while I was sat."

"That session was helpful for you to improve your lifestyle, but instead, you absolutely had zero interest in it to even give it a try." Amelia complained. "Even the last time we went to the cinema you slept twice."

"Oh come on, who can stand watching _The Lord Of The Rings_ without falling asleep?" He asked her. In the moment the adult bandicoot eventually put his hand on the knob and opened the door, both stayed surprised to see their children close to each other and cleaning the floor, which was something they rarely - or never - would do in their lives.

"Oh, hi mom, hi dad." Maya smiled widely. Cade noticed them as he hid a few chunks under a carpet with his foot. "How was the occasion?"

"Umm... it was good, I guess." Crash answered. He gave a glance at the house for a moment and stood somewhat puzzled. "Is it just me, or the house seems different?" He asked them, and Amelia suspected as well.

"What happened to the wall?" She pointed at the one where N. Gin has formerly hit his face on. Cade bit his fingernails, hurrying himself to think of an excuse to tell them.

"Well, you see, umm... I... I..." He paused. "I was cooking some pancakes, and since I was playing around by tossing them into the air and whatnot, I stumbled and hit my head on the wall." He lied. Both the adult bandicoots found that weird, but they nevertheless accepted the accident.

"At least I'm proud of you for keeping your word." Amelia smiled as she gave another kiss on her son's head.

"Aww mom, you didn't need to..." Cade blushed.

"Are you sure that _nothing_ has happened around here?" Crash inquired again.

"Of course not dad, everything is under control." Maya urged as she continued smiling at him. Kida did the same, too.

"Okay then." He smiled at long last, and eventually took off the annoying jacket out of him as he put it back on the coat rack. "I'm hungry. Who wants fried chicken for dinner?" Crash suggested as he was back in his old humorous mood.

Although the trio has escaped this one successfully, they still looked at each other when they recalled the wonder of _how_ the human cyborg knew who their father was, and why would he want them for that so called Dr. Cortex.


	5. Back to School

**Chapter 5**

Returning to the castle, the red-haired cyborg ran as fast as he could until Cortex's laboratory. With a few bruises around his body and a terrible pain in the butt due to the kick, N. Gin arrived to the destined place as he finished clicking the buttons to write the code so that the door could eventually allow him enter inside.

"Dr. Cortex!" N. Gin panted, stopping right behind the scientist's back with his hands on his knees due to tiredness. "You... you won't believe what has just happened to me! It was beyond crazy! The kids were just horrendously _terrible_! The boy looked like Juanes but in bandicoot version, the girl looked like Lisa Simpson but a lot more annoying, and the little girl could only be a piranha in disguise! Look at what she did to my poor hand!" He panicked as he removed the glove to show him.

Cortex only stood glaring at the short-structured cyborg with a blank stare face. "You're kidding me... right?"

"No, master! It was all true! They-they even pushed me down the stairs with roller skates!"

"Oh for god's sake..." He rolled his eyes testily as he simply walked closer to N. Gin, and grasped his lab coat to make him look straight into his eyes. "Are you deaf?! I told you to bring _him_, not his brats!" Cortex finished protesting as he released the cyborg at long last. "Oh Lord, why? Why do you always bring me such incompetent idiots?!" He talked to himself as he glanced at the ceiling.

"I'm sorry sir, but he wasn't at home either!" N. Gin added, nervous. The scientist despaired even more.

"He _wasn't_?!" Cortex shouted as he punched the table out of frustration. "That rat! I hate him simply because he always guesses the time to get caught! Arrgh! But you know what, I'm tired of waiting. This time, _you_ are going to get him whether he's at home or not." He stated coldly at the cyborg as he swallowed silently. Moments later, Cortex had a new brilliant scheme in mind as he looked at another member of the crew sitting not too far from them.

"N. Tropy!" He called. The self-proclaimed master of time sighed out of annoyance.

"What now?" He grumbled. "Can't I just do my yoga class? For time's sake, I'm on holiday!"

"To be honest I really don't care if you're trying to get into Buddhism, now get your stinky butt out there and help N. Gin to catch the bandicoot. I'm impatient." Cortex urged.

"Only if you double my salary." N. Tropy stood up as he folded his arms. "I don't work for free, you know."

"Fine, I'll do it! Just do whatever the heck I tell you and you'll have your salary back." He scoffed. "All I want is that marsupial at this moment, and you two better not fall asleep along the way because I hate delays."

"Says the one who never gets his butt out the castle." Nina remarked.

"Nina, as much as I love you, I'd appreciate you better if you kept your mouth shut." Cortex said, and then turned his head at his two assistants. "Now, go."

* * *

Monday, 7:00 AM. The alarm clock in Cade's bedroom rang its annoying morning sound, and the teenage bandicoot wasn't happy to hear it as he just hit the clock to the floor to turn it off. Oh, how he hated waking up early. Yawning, he stretched his arms upwards and waved his hair down, where shortly after he eventually gained the courage to get up from the bed.

"Gosh, I hate Mondays..." Cade muttered as he remembered that he had to get dressed for school. In slow motion, Cade wore his white shirt to put his dark-blue jacket on it and then began to wear his jeans, but due to taking so long at getting ready it was already a quarter past hour when his mother called him.

"Cade!" Amelia shouted from the kitchen. "Hurry up or you'll miss the bus! Don't be so lazy!"

He rolled his eyes. "Mothers..." And then he walked to the mirror to rearrange his ponytail after he put on his shoes. As soon as the young bandicoot started to smell delicious pancakes for breakfast, he licked his cheeks in hunger as he didn't think twice before picking up his schoolbag and running in direction to the stairs - despite that he always forgets them in the first place and then falls accidentally throughout the steps.

"Ouch..." Cade groaned in pain. "Why this world has no mercy for me..."

Seconds later, Maya finished climbing down the stairs as she was more focused on wanting to eat her father's pancakes. Though it was considered to be quite unusual, Crash was actually a terrible cook, despite that his pancakes were the only thing that was worth drooling for surpassing all the best qualities imaginable. He was always the first one to wake up on the weekdays to serve breakfast to the twins, since he'd start working at the auto shop only a half hour after their schedule, and Kida was still in bed for not having school yet.

"Good morning." Crash smiled, who noticed his son with a face of bad humor. "I think someone didn't have enough sleep, I see..."

"I hate school." He complained, folding his arms as he eventually sat on the chair. "Why can't I just place TNT crates in there and let it blow up? It would be my dream come true." Cade confessed with a pity tone.

"I'm afraid that won't ever happen." The male adult bandicoot merely answered as he placed the pancakes on the teenage bandicoot's plate. In the moment he began eating, Maya finally sat next to him as she seemed more absent-minded than usual.

"Maya, are you okay?" Crash frowned an eyebrow, and Cade stroke back.

"Oh, she's daydreaming about her new boyfriend." He told him as he gave another bite.

"What?"

"For your information, he has a name." Maya defended.

"Right, what was it? Let me try to remember, hmm... oh yeah, Max, the hippie guy."

"Maximilian." She narrowed her green eyes at her brother. "And he may be a hippie, but at least he's more presentable and formal than you."

Cade choked with his own food, and he only didn't suffocate himself because Maya helped him by giving a slap on his back. But instead, he burst into laughter.

"More presentable and formal than _moi_?" He scowled, despite that he kept laughing for himself. "I never knew a batcoot could be cooler than me! Woah, I think I'll start bowing every time he walks past me and kiss his feet." He sneered. The young female bandicoot was about to snap at him, this until Amelia decided to step into the middle of the conversation.

"Are you sure that he's the right guy for you, Maya?" She asked with concern. "I know you're growing up and want to experience these things in life, but the truth is, first love almost never works. Take me as an example, or your father with Jessica Rabbit." She suggested.

"Umm, honey..." Crash looked at her. "I don't think it was Jessica Rabbit."

"I know mom, but I have feelings for him, and who knows... maybe we'll go through together." Maya urged.

"Of course, and then I want to marry him and look deep into his beautiful blue, heavenly eyes until the very second I die." Cade imitated Maya's voice as he finished proclaiming a sentence he had read from her diary, despite that it didn't take long before his sister pushing down his own face against the pancakes to shut him up.

"All right, sweetheart." Amelia sighed. "Just please don't hurry up yourself too much, ok?"

Suddenly, someone just rang the bell as the female adult bandicoot decided to open the door and see who was there.

"Hi Mrs. Bandicoot." Tymon greeted with his friendly smile as he was carrying his schoolbag on his shoulder. "Is Cade still sleeping? I've been waiting for him for twenty minutes, and because the bus will come in..." He looked at his watch in the moment the bus arrived to pick up the bandicoots. "...One second."

"Sure, he's eating in the kitchen. Hold on a sec." Amelia said as she turned her back to warn him. Meanwhile, Maya walked out from the door until she got surprised to meet the tasmanian tiger.

"Oh, hi Ty." She smiled. He began to blush as he barely heard her voice.

"H-Hey Maya." Ty smiled back. "You look quite pretty today."

"Why, thank you." Maya thanked, and before the teenage tiger could add something else, Cade also arrived.

"Time to go, fellas." He stated no more or less. "Let's go to the boring place."

"Umm, Cade, no offense, but I thought you did like school for being popular?" Ty pointed out.

"Questions later, my head's still dizzy from the sleep." Cade simply replied to divert the conversation as he scratched the inside of his ear with his finger. As soon as the three teenagers overheard the bus' horn for the second time, they finally headed themselves towards the vehicle as Amelia stood at the front door waving her hand.

"Have a great day at school, kids!" She shouted goodbye at them. Shortly after, Crash also came until her after he finished his breakfast.

"Why do you always use my pink apron whenever you're cooking?" Amelia frowned as she only realized that detail by now.

"I dunno, I just have a thing with the colour pink." Crash shrugged.

* * *

Wumpa Highschool. The school where every kind of species and hybrids interact with each other, as well considered to be one of the biggest and most known schools in the Wumpa Islands. The bus, after a half hour of travel, eventually stopped next to the building as everyone on board slowly began to step until the exit and walk towards the large entrance of the school.

For the record - but at the same time not so surprisingly -, Cade Bandicoot was actually popular at his school, but his popularity wasn't originated by the fact that he was the son of one of the most undaunted heroes of the archipelago. His troublesome and careless nature is what has led him to achieve his fame, and though he was equally loved and loathed in that school, he felt as the king in there, and the only thing he admitted himself for disliking was learning and 'looking at the flies' while in class.

The gym class has actually passed pretty fast, and Cade and Ty were chatting while the teenage bandicoot was saving some of his stuff into his locker. The break recess was only fifteen minutes long, but the tasmanian tiger didn't even notice the time as he was beyond thrilled on hearing his friend's unusual story.

"Wow, did _that_ really happen?" Ty widened his eyes. "Dude, you should write it for the school's newspaper!"

"I know right?" Cade kept talking as he was trying to close the locker by force, since it was incredibly fraught with things he brought from home and only a few books. "The cyborg even had a missile lodged into his head! At first I thought he was one of those guys who didn't call 911 and became completely berserk out of nowhere, but he was actually pretty hilarious."

"And is it true that he ran away no more or less?" He frowned an eyebrow. "Woah... you guys must've been very brave."

"Yup, yes we were."

All at once, an acquainted girl Cade knew some days ago just passed by the boys with another friend of hers. She was a koala with orange hair, greenish green eyes, black ears, and was dressed into a white shirt with pink stripes, a magenta skirt with blue shorts underneath them, and yellow sandals. The black-haired teenage bandicoot couldn't get his eyes off her; to him, she could only be the most beautiful student he has ever seen putting a foot in that school.

"Umm... hello? Earth calling Cade?" Ty snapped his fingers in front of his eyes.

"Huh-What?" He finally woke up.

"What gave you? You just suddenly stopped listening to me."

"Did you see that girl?" Cade asked.

"Yeah, and? Ooh..." Ty eventually understood. "Love is in the air!"

Cade covered his mouth. "Dude! Don't say it out loud for Freddie Mercury's sake!"

"Sorry." He whispered. "But, seriously, I never knew you had a crush on Koala Kong's daughter."

"Her name's Roxanne. I've only met her since the past week, but she's really growing on me." He stated as he glanced at the koala one more time with a passionate look. "She may be a shy, clever and quiet girl who almost never gets into the looks, but damn... isn't she beautiful?"

Unfortunately, all of his heavenly thoughts got suddently interrupted as a nemesis was about to arrive; Edmund Potocoot. Being Cade's rival ever since they've known each other, Edmund was Pinstripe and Tawna's only child, and he was also popular - but this time for his remarkable and boundless ego. He always thought that he was superior than everyone else in the whole school, and everybody could tell without even knowing him that he was a huge narcissist by his fancy figures. His fur was brown while his inner ears were pink, and he had green eyes as he also had a short bandicoot tail and blonde hair with the same hairstyle as his mother. He was dressed into a medium white shirt with a blue tie, pinkish red jeans, and expensive black shoes.

"Well, well." Ed smiled, since he'd always start a conversation that way. "What do we have here?" He spoke to the other members of his group, who also decided to come until where the bandicoot and the tiger were standing. "Isn't the bandicoot and his boyfriend talking to each other?"

Ty was about to mouth at the potocoot, this until Cade has stopped him in time.

"Hey, Ed." Cade narrowed his eyes at his archenemy with a smirk. "Have you already finished your Barbie collection?" He sneered.

"Hah, hah." He exchanged a faint, sarcastic laugh. "It seems that you've been improving your sense of humor lately, I see."

"I always had more sense of humor than you anyway." He rolled his eyes.

"Right." Ed coughed on purpose. "You're lucky this time, 'cause since I hate fighting for being such an irrational deed, I've come to here to give you a 'friendly' warning about the science fair of tomorrow." He told them.

"Crap, I almost forgot about it..." Cade muttered to Ty.

"So what I wanted to tell you today is that I, Don Edmund Potocoot, will win the fair as you guys are already expecting." He kept on. "But since I actually like challenges and the poor bandicoot, well, wins nothing, I was thinking about a permanent deal."

"Permanent?" Cade scowled.

"Yes. Basically, I'll stop bothering you both for some time - or perhaps for some months -, if _only_ you and your fantastic... pair, wins me with your oh-so-great upcoming project, which I highly doubt it is."

"You better believe that our project is far better than yours." Ty finally snapped at him, but the teenage bandicoot still kept him on the line.

"Challenge accepted." Cade smiled as, for the first time, he exchanged a handshake with his enemy. "We'll see at the science fair, Ken." He snickered.

Disgusted, Ed cussed quietly to himself as he turned his back and walked away with the others, since he absolutely hated being called by that girl's toy name.

"Are you utterly sure we're going to win him, Cade?" Ty asked as he was a little unreliable.

"Don't worry, at least with our project we can wipe out the entire school and give them the excuse that it was an accident." Cade winked.

"Well thought." He agreed with a prompt nod. Meanwhile, the school bell has eventually rung, and so the teenage bandicoot and the tasmanian tiger finally picked up their schoolbags and went to the next class.


	6. Double Trouble

**Chapter 6**

As the students eventually sat on their chairs in the History class, everybody kept talking to each other like if they were still in the recess break. Most conversations were whether about boyfriends or girlfriends, their friend's life, what they did last night, how they hated homework, that kind of unexceptional teenage stuff. However, the classroom fell quiet as the teacher came in at long last. He was a meerkat, presumably by his fifties due to his old-fashioned looks and white hair, brown and cream coloured fur, brown eyes, and the most famous detail his small round old glasses which always fall down his nose after a while.

"Good morning, boys and girls." Mr. Orlandus greeted as he placed his bag full of books upon the desk, and rubbed his hands to get ready to explain the matter. "Does anyone remember what we learned last class? No? Alright then. Let's start with my students' doubts."

Cade, for some reason, was snickering to himself. Ty noticed this for sitting next to him and asked.

"What's so funny?" He inquired him in a quite curious tone.

"You'll see." Cade whispered him back with a mischievous smile on his face.

"OK, now that I've already clarified a student's doubt, let's eventually begin our class."

The teenage bandicoot's biggest luck was that Mr. Orlandus was too inattentive by nature that he didn't even hear his snickers. In the moment he sighed out of relief due to his back pain and finally sat on his chair, an enormous fake fart echoed throughout the classroom in such way that almost the entire school heard it. Everyone laughed uncontrollably, even some couldn't help but fall from their own chairs due to dying of laughing. And, of course, Cade was no exception.

"Now _that_ was history!" He remarked out loud as he also couldn't contain his laughter. Despite all the humor and whatnot, Mr. Orlandus was far from it, and his rage increased at such rate that his face turned out red like a tomato in a matter of seconds. Oh, how he hated being humiliated... especially in front of his students.

"CRASH BANDICOOT JUNIOR!*" Mr. Orlandus shouted angrily. "DETENTION!" He then pointed his fingernail at the door.

Only when they heard the word 'detention' everybody fell silent like dead, not even a single whistle dared to interfere in that ominous silence. Cade, however, didn't seem to mind that much.

"Okay." He shrugged, and then he rose up from his chair to pick up his schoolbag and walk until the door. With his acquainted smile on his face, he still smiled at the rest of the class like if nothing happened.

"Bye!" Cade waved his hand and left by closing the door. The others remarked to each other in low voice, astonished.

"Man, he's really brave by leaving the classroom with a detention no more or less."

"He always does that anyway."

"He's dumb."

"What will happen to him?"

Maya, while listening to that some guys' conversation, facepalmed in utter disappointment. Now her brother was in _deep_ trouble... and the big ones.

* * *

Crash got called from work to talk with the highschool principal. To him it wasn't any novelty, since he was beyond accustomed to get calls from school complaining about his son's behaviour. Poor old bandicoot, always in going-out-and-going-in without putting an end into it. What has Cade done this time?

As the adult bandicoot achieved to the principal's door, or, Mr. Wednesday's door, he knocked at it before he could put his hand on the knob and open the door. A dark-brown male monkey dressed into a formal gray suit with a black tie and regular glasses showed up right in front of him, dealing with some paperwork as he was calmly sat on his chair and his elbows upon the large wooden desk. Just the thought of hearing once again another ordinary complaint bored Crash. However, he walked naturally until the only chair available in that sinister room, and didn't think twice before sitting as well.

"Oh, Mr. Crash." Mr. Wednesday eventually woke up into reality as he looked at the orange bandicoot. "Glad you came here just in the right time."

"Any serious problems, principal?" Crash inquired, a bit uneasy. "Since, umm, this is certainly not the first time I come here."

"Yeah, apparently things haven't been famous lately." He told him, his fingers crossed as he kept a non-impressive expression on his face.

"I see." The adult bandicoot exchanged a soft sigh of disbelief. "Well, what about my daughter?"

"Oh, Maya? Yes, she's intelligent. She hasn't changed anything other than keeping herself as a straight A student, which is remarkably good for our school's success and media. But unfortunately, the question is not about her... is your son."

"I knew it." Crash avowed, discouraged.

"Mr. Crash, I'd hate to tell you the sir about this, but... I'm afraid your son has to go to the electric chair."

Barely in the instant the male bandicoot overheard the words 'electric chair', he gasped in such way that he almost jumped from the chair and had a heart attack. Mr. Wednesday, on the other hand, laughed like if he has never laughed so much in his life before.

"Relax, Mr. Crash! I was just kidding. I'm accustomed to tell these type of pranks to parents to study their reaction, so please don't get offended by such silly game." He kept laughing slightly, but Crash no longer found that funny. In fact, he couldn't help but show him a death stare. "But seriously, Mr. Crash, your son is getting out of control. Despite of his grades being very low in comparison to the standards, the major problem on him is his rebellious nature. He's so rebellious that he does _every_ single kind of unbelievable things; from placing pins on the teacher's chair, chewing gums under the tables, creating explosions on purpose during the chemistry class, doing illegal graffiti on the walls with insulting messages to the teachers, and umm... what more... oh yes, and he also encourages all the other kids to do exactly the same like if he is kind of a leader. And he just played another prank by putting a bag of farts this morning!"

"Look, I know my son has a chaotic nature, and shouldn't have done some things... okay, most of them." Crash urged. "But I've tried everything! Even behaviour pills didn't work on him."

"I know that, but if we don't do something soon, you can be utterly sure that he's going to turn this school into a living hell." Mr. Wednesday kept on. "He has even reached the detention limit! I have no choice but to take the last and least preferred action to solve this problem."

The last sentence intrigued him, and he frowned an eyebrow in complete wonder.

"What action?"

"Send him to Academy of Evil."

While drinking a glass of water, Crash completely choked himself. It took almost a minute to make him breathe normally again, but he nevertheless stayed open-eyed.

"_WHAT?!_ B-b-b-but principal, that school is for evil kids!"

"Well, if Cade doesn't want to be civilized, then yes, that's where he should belong."

"But principal," Crash insisted, desperate. "I know Cade does things that sometimes it's hard to believe, but we all know that he isn't a ruthless kid. It's not that he has killed anyone or anything."

"I know Mr. Crash, but rules are rules. We don't accept overly bad-behaved kids, especially at this rate. And you're also obliged to sign the permission to send him to that school."

He was screwed. Crash could swear himself that he was white as lime.

"Isn't... isn't there any another way?" He begged him. The principal thought about it for a while, and decided to come into an agreement.

"Cade can stay in our school to continue his studies, but, _only_, if he doesn't get any more detentions until the end of this school year. Not even one will be allowed. I'll give him one more chance, but if he surpasses this tiny little scarce detention, he'll be mandatorily expelled to Academy of Evil with no exceptions. Are we clear, Mr. Crash?"

He sighed. "Yes, sir. I'll do my best to correct his ways."

"Good." Mr. Wednesday turned his chair's back at the adult bandicoot. "You may go now, Mr. Crash. Have a nice day."

* * *

Right after the meeting with the principal, Crash didn't speak a single word ever since. Even though he was accustomed that his life was far from being perfect and being full of flaws, the truth was at least clear when he began to get tired of it and for wishing that he was just living in a silly nightmare. The world itself has begun to become upside down upon his shoulders, and he couldn't deny it. He has always hated Academy of Evil, not only because of the fact that it's truly a bad influence for his own children, but mainly because he recalled a detail concerning Cortex having his own niece placed in there as well. Oh, how he shivered just to think of the theory that _his_ son would fall in love with that creepy gothic and cyborg girl. Or the theory that he'll spend the next five years being a victim of bullying and eventually become suicidal. Or even himself becoming into a 'bad kid' and join the mob later on. Either way, those potential thoughts still haunted him.

It was half past six, and Crash decided to pick up the kids since he has brought the jeep with him. Cade and Maya stood surprised to see their father at the entrance, since he'd only pick them up at special occasions or when he'd leave work earlier than usual. Avoiding asking him questions, the twins nevertheless smiled at him and sat on their seats, once they didn't want to go all the way home by foot.

Strangely, Crash seemed way too quiet. As Maya was in the back seat, Cade was sat on the front seat drinking a milkshake while the adult bandicoot was driving the vehicle, but his eyes barely moved. They seemed to be glued to the windscreen, as well his hands relatively to the steering wheel. Cade found that weird, but then he thought that it was just one his moments. Until, about five minutes later, Crash finally asked him.

"So..." He cleared his throat. "How was school today, son?"

"Fine." Cade merely shrugged as he kept drinking his milkshake, just like if he hadn't the minimum thing in the world to worry about. Crash noticed this by the corner of the eye, and he couldn't help it.

"How can you be so carefree?" Crash demanded him, his tone a little off than the normal. Maya immediately woke up from her daydream, and she opened her ears to listen to their conversation.

"Umm... dad, are you alright?" The teenage bandicoot frowned, but he asked him in a concerned voice.

"Do you see me smiling?" He looked at him with a serious expression. Boy, when his old man is in that state, it's never a good signal.

"Actually... I miss your unique, brighty and monstrous smile of yours."

"Good, 'cause you won't see it today."

"What's wrong with you?"

"What's wrong with me? There's nothing wrong about me. There's something wrong _in_ you. Cade, do you have any idea the trouble you've put me into?"

Remarkably, to him it wasn't any novelty.

"Let me guess, the Mr. Banana principal called you." He folded his arms.

"The 'Mr. Banana' principal told me that you're going to Academy of Evil sooner or later." He sneered back. Cade literally spat his milkshake to the windscreen, and Maya exchanged that _Eww!_ interjection.

"What?! You mean that... that... _that_ school where all the kids are complete homicides, put your head in the toilet with flushing water for the rest of your life, gothic and emo religion, sadistic teachers, and those type of 'cool kids' who extend a welcome to the new students by peeing at them?"

"Exactly."

Cade dropped his milkshake bottle. "I'm doomed."

"See, this is what happens when you never think of the consequences of your actions." Crash added. "I'm not a philosopher nor even close there, but if you get screwed, I'm screwed too."

"Dad, please!" The teenage bandicoot crossed his fingers and pleaded. "I wouldn't survive there in three days! Please don't put me in that school..."

"I don't want to Cade, I really don't." He told him. "But if you get just one more detention, I'm forced to sign the transference."

"Stupid Mr. Banana..." Cade muttered.

"So all I ask you, Cade, please, don't overtake it." Crash advised. "You know how I don't like being the main focus of problems, and you know way too better that this is a big deal to me. Please change your behaviour. It'll be the best for all of us."

"But-"

The adult bandicoot glared at him. "You're fifteen, Cade. You need to get over it and be a man for once."

Though his father wasn't the kind of person who was good at advices or who actually liked to give sermons to the people he loved most, that sentence pretty pissed the teenage bandicoot off. He eventually closed his mouth in defeat and didn't say anything until they arrived home. And, for the best of odds, Crash pretended to forget to tell Amelia what had just happened in that stressful day.

* * *

_***NOTE: **Cade's legitimate name has been altered, since this one seems to be more fitting into the universe than his old weird-sounding former full name. And on a side note, sorry for my inactiveness. I'm pretty busy with school at the moment, but I'll keep updating this story whenever I can, so don't worry. Peace! :)_


	7. Ain't No Party With Fire

**Chapter 7**

Finally, Tuesday has arrived. The day where every kid dreams to be the winner of the winners on a science fair; competition, teasing and, almost unavoidably, jealousy. It is also the day where all parents get excited and don't think twice before putting their foot there - simply because they only want to be proud of their children's creative inventions and because there were chairs to sit, of course.

Since the science fair started at seven o'clock, the Bandicoot family was no exception to not miss Cade's presentation. Being the last ones to arrive until the theater room, which was full of parents and teachers everywhere they would go across at this ultimate minute, Crash, Amelia, Maya and Kida were despairingly trying to find at least four seats to sit and in a good view so that they could see their son on live. Man, the principal must've been inviting the whole city to create this whole mess. And like if it wasn't enough for Crash being uncomfortable among those snooper people, Amelia has brought a red dress with glitter that extended until her feet and lips painted in scarlet - every man she passed by couldn't help but look at her in astonishment, even though that pretty pissed their own wives off.

"Did you really _have_ to bring your occasional dress?" Crash asked her in low voice, completely uncomfortable and at the same time willing to punch a guy's nose out everytime he'd catch him glancing at his wife.

"Hey, I don't use this dress since our last honeymoon." Amelia replied. "What if you relax just a little? You're tense."

"I don't think I'll relax until these guys stop staring at you like hungry dogs..." He answered back. Ironically, it didn't even last ten seconds until the adult bandicoot came across one of his most infamous enemies; Pinstripe Potoroo.

"Well, well, whad do we have eer?" The way he sneered couldn't get out of Crash's ears - it was impossible to ever forget his Brooklyn accent. "Isn't da Crash Bandicoot? Hah! Ahm thoughd you had ended your peddy life down da street... heroie o' da woild, hah! Whad a joke."

Crash laughed sarcastically. "Hey Pinstripe, how long! Tell me, when did you learn Chinese? It's because I want to learn it so that I can understand you." He grinned out of tease. And to make things hotter than they were, Tawna, Pinstripe's wife, was also standing by his side right in front of Amelia. But, for the biggest surprise, both Tawna and Amelia ignored each other like if none were there at the moment. Tired of such unfunny mockery from the part of the bandicoot, Pinstripe grabbed his wife's arm.

"C'mon, darlin'! Led's keed movin', theyse losers." He grumbled as the couple went away to find seats to sit.

Maya stood curious and asked. "Is that man a parody of Scarface? He seems Italian." She looked at Crash.

"If he's not Italian, then I don't know what he is."

"Gangsta!" Kida shouted in her adorable kiddy voice.

"Kida!" Amelia placed her hands on her hips, correcting her. "Never say those things."

The five-year-old momentarily lowered her ears. "Sowwy." She apologized, but the way she showed her sad puppy eyes didn't help Crash to resist her.

"There, she only said a silly word... which I completely agree with." He exchanged his acquainted grin as he held the infant in his arms and, in apologize, Amelia decided to rearrange her young daughter's pink hair bow for being out of place, and then kiss her fluffy cheek.

"Look! Empty chairs!" Maya automatically shouted as she pointed her finger at four chairs that were available in the first line. What a lucky day, no doubt.

"Quick! Run to them before someone else steals them!" Crash urged as he and his family started running like complete idiots. And boy, wasn't it easy to step through all those people...

"Step aside! Step aside, please!" The adult bandicoot repeated and repeated as he had trouble to pass over. "Step aside-!"

"Hey!" One of the parents bawled after he accidentally dropped his cell phone. "Watch where you're going, you lunatic!"

Crash stopped and glared at him. "Shut up, Godzilla." He retorted. "Next time make sure to not forget your plastic surgery."

He immediately shut his mouth, and around a minute later after going through the endless crowd, the bandicoots have finally arrived to the destined chairs.

"Phew." Crash sighed out of relief. "Now I can finally sleep."

"Crash, Cade may appear at any time now." Amelia told him.

"Don't worry, he'll be not the first one to enter." And then he closed his eyes for a moment.

* * *

Inside the backstage, Cade and Ty were preparing for their presentation by testing their project one last time. Although the teenage bandicoot wasn't walking around in circles just like any anxious person would do, he was pretty nervous. In the instant they eventually finished their final pre-test, Ty noticed his best friend with a concerned expression while he was biting his own nails, and decided to put a friendly hand on his shoulder to calm him down.

"Hey Cade, don't worry." The tasmanian tiger smiled. "If you get trouble on the speech, just imagine the public naked. Works with me everytime."

"Thanks, dude." He smiled in turn. "I'm just more nervous than usual due to the fact that my parents are there... and even in the first line." He added after he looked through the long curtains.

"Do you really think Edmund is going to win the fair?" Ty inquired.

"As far as I know Ed, he'd presumably present a tea party than something that is actually interesting." Cade said without any impression.

"Hm, you're right."

All at once, the lights of the entire stage suddenly turned off, and the teenage boys soon realized that it was finally time for the school principal to begin his boring speech before the science fair would start. And while Mr. Wednesday was testing his microphone before the blue light would center on him and the public soothing from their parallel conversations, Cade and Ty opened their ears and had no choice but to listen to his voice.

"Ladies and gentlemen!" Mr. Wednesday began, his good-sounding and deep voice echoing through everyone's eardrums. "Parents of all ages! Welcome to Wumpa Highschool's annual science fair! The fair where every teenager enjoys the opportunity to be actually good on something that isn't about grades - coughs -, and, of course, to make every parent that is present in this large room as proud as ever!"

"(Ugh, cliché please...)" Cade rolled his eyes to himself.

"Now that the science fair should've been started since 7 PM, we're already going to introduce our beloved students' projects." As he barely finished his sentence, Cade and Ty swallowed nervously. "The following students that are going to present their next presentation are..." Both crossed their fingers while the principal took a brave second or two to read the names that were selected on the paper. "...Don Edmund Potocoot and Maurice!"

_Phew!_, what a relief. In the moment a wide mountain of claps were heard among the crowd, Edmund, along with his lizard assistant - who ironically acted more like a butler in relation to him -, with his superiority shown by the gesture of his hand placed gingerly on his chest, approached the teenage bandicoot and the teenage tiger before he could step towards the stage.

"Good luck, bandicoot." He told them as he still had the biggest selfishness for not even helping his poor friend on carrying the carrier with their project. The teenage bandicoot frowned his brow when he wasn't already there.

"I hate him." Cade avowed. "He stupidly thinks he's god!"

"Let him." Ty folded his arms, also glaring at the blonde potocoot behind the stage.

During the minute that everybody slowed down the applause and he entered with his partner on stage with the project covered under a huge white towel, Edmund arrogantly smiled at every person he had scanned with his mendacious greenish eyes. In fact, the presentation would've been _more_ far interesting if he had dressed a ballerina outfit and started dancing the Charleston dance in front of the public - now that the boys would give him five stars for once.

After ten minutes of boring explanations and some extra five minutes of needless details about his 'magnificent' project, Edmund has eventually finished his presentation. And, like if it wasn't anyone's surprise, he talked for fifteen minutes straight of a modernized wardrobe with some technology put into it so that it could be easier to select the clothes and such. A _wardrobe_. Thankfully nobody laughed, but it was assured that most of them didn't only fall asleep in a close call. Still proud like if he was the greatest genius in the world, Mr. Wednesday glanced at the teenage potocoot with a reinforced smile.

"Well..." He cleared his throat. "Thanks for showing us your wonderful project, Edmund. You two may go now."

Turning his back to eventually return to the backstage, Edmund heard a quite few but very slow claps.

"Thank you, thank you." He bowed repeatedly as he still smiled at them. Cade and Ty, after what they saw from their rival's presentation, fell in unending laughter.

"That was _it_? That was his most brilliant project _ever_ made?" The teenage bandicoot attempted to stop, but it was almost inevitable. "Even a baby could make it better than him!"

"It wasn't even scientific!" Ty also laughed as hard as he could. In the moment Edmund stepped into the area they were in, the boys instantly shut themselves and pretended that they were astounded.

"Wow Edmund, your project was great!" Cade avowed in a fake exciting tone. "It was so amazing that you have no idea how much I am jealous."

"Yeah, next time we'd like to see you make a presentation of a 'modernized' sewing machine!" Ty added in giggles. "I'd even call the media to shoot your greatest invention!"

Both fell in loud laughter again. Edmund, now realizing that it was nothing but complete sarcasm and teasing, gritted his teeth in anger and walked away.

"And the next following students that are going to present their presentation are..." Mr. Wednesday spoke once again with his microphone. "...Cade Bandicoot and Tymon Tiger!"

As a large applause from the public rose aloud, the teenage bandicoot and tiger seemed to collapse for a moment. Well, this was it; it was now or never. Cade closed his eyes for some seconds and prayed in silence.

"(All right, Jack Black. Give me that 'yeah-thumbs-up' thing so that my project can be successful and everything not ending in disaster. If I survive this, I promise I'll watch your next movie. Amen.)"

Opening his eyes, he took one last deep breath, and finally decided to move on as he helped Ty to carry their project until the stage. As the bandicoot barely showed up to the public, Amelia gasped in euphoria and kept clapping her hands.

"Oh!, here he is!" She cried out loud happily. Recognizing his mother's unique tone of voice, Cade almost died of embarrassment as his cheeks turned out vivid red. Nervously smiling at everyone who was watching him at the distance, Cade eventually stopped in the center of the stage with his friend by his side so that they could begin the presentation. Walking a few steps forward to the public, it was time to start his introduction speech. Silence. It was such hush around the entire theater room that the only ones that were making tiny noises were the grigs of the night. Good heavens, how awkward it felt. Cade still recalled that fateful day where he had to sing a song he barely remembered when he was in pre-school; he sure cried loudly like a baby, afraid of all those strange people in front of him, and wetting his shorts due to the nerves. Wasn't pretty. At all.

Clearing his throat, he began. "Good night, ladies and gentlemen." His voice was somewhat cracky, but it didn't take long to correct it. "This... this is a project that I and my best friend Ty did, huh... when we, huh... wanted to experiment a new chemical reaction with a certain chemical compound, on... on... on a volcano-"

Suddenly, someone interrupted Cade's speech with a high snoring, and everyone's heads immediately turned at Crash, who was sleeping like a rock. Upset, Amelia elbowed him forcely so that he could wake up for once.

"Huh-what?" Crash asked, but then he glanced at his son, with his eyes half-closed and arms folded. "Oh. Keep going." He smiled widely as he gave him a thumbs up.

"Anyway, with this presentation, we have the intent to show you something that isn't scientifically helpful, but scientifically curious - now I sound like a stupid scientist, pardon me - with this fake volcano we've created. And adding this green substance I have in this test-tube," He showed them a test-tube with nitroglycerin. "You guys won't see lava, but an eruption with fireworks."

The people smiled in curiosity and whispered to each other about what would happen next. However, a kid between in the middle of the public, raised his hand up and asked.

"What's the name of the substance?" He inquired Cade. Giving him a sassy smile, he answered.

"Oh, that's a secret." He winked at him.

Abruptly, Crash and Amelia looked at each other with open eyes.

"Are you thinking _what_ I am thinking?" He asked her. Amelia agreed.

"I have a very bad feeling about this..." She replied.

"Okay, now that I've already finished my speech, let's begin the party, shall we?" Cade spoke to the public with a grin as he got excited to show them his experience. Ordering Ty to take off the huge white towel which was upon their project, the volcano was finally shown to the public, and it wasn't very small but not also very big. Edmund, behind the stage supervising on the two teenagers, remarked to himself.

"Hmph, a volcano... how original." He rolled his eyes.

"Ty, go turn on the Bunsen burner that is under the table, please." Cade said. Doing so, the tasmanian tiger turned on the burner that was between the base of the volcano and the table - and, after putting their protection goggles on their eyesights, the teenage bandicoot eventually did his part by dropping a drop of nitro into the crater. But, even after three minutes of waiting for the reaction, nothing happened.

"Weird..." Cade scratched his ear. "Why didn't it happen?"

Edmund yawned, uninterested.

"Perhaps because you didn't put enough liquid?" Ty suggested.

"Yeah, you're right. Just wait another sec, folks." He told the public, and right in the moment he would just drop one or two more drops, he accidentally dropped the whole test-tube into the crater after it slipped from his hand. Ty's jaw almost fell to the floor.

"Oops..." That was all Cade could say in interjection, and uptight, he smiled to the people. "It's nothing, it's nothing-"

And _KABOOM!_, an authentic eruption pushed both the bandicoot and the tasmanian tiger in such way that they seemed to fly through the air for seconds. Fortunately, they didn't get serious damages thanks to their goggles, and small, colourful fireworks started to catch everyone's attention.

"Wooh!"

"Pretty!"

"This is awesome!"

"Really great!"

"This deserves the top!"

An enormous applause echoed throughout the theater room. Jealous to the button, Edmund huffed and turned his back.

"Thank you, thank you everybody!" Cade thanked with the biggest smile he has ever shown in his face, but unfortunately, his cheer wouldn't last long.

Dizzy from the unexpected incident, Ty accidentally slips his foot on a soap while trying to lift up from the floor - and, without even knowing himself _how_ that soap appeared on that exact same spot out of nowhere -, he fell once again but this time overthrowing the own volcano as well. _BOOM!_, another explosion occurred upwards, but unlike the other one, it caused fire on the stage.

"FIRE!" Crash screamed with his hands on his dark auburn mohawk. The public, desperate on watching the flames coming to them, began to scream simultaneously, and several by several started to run towards the exit while running for their lives. In fact, the poor adult bandicoot got defeated by such population that he fell to the ground with every one stepping on his sensible back, and someone even smashed his only and favourite sunglasses.

"My glasses!" He shouted. Ty, as incredible as it seemed, could escape from the fire without burning his body thanks to his speed - Edmund, on the other hand, began to scream hysterically in the moment he knew that his beautiful hair was on fire.

"MY WIG! MY WIG IS ON FIRE!" He cried out, running in circles. Pinstripe, who for some reason was still sat on the same chair reading a newspaper like if nothing happened, got tired of his son's screams.

"Edmund, shud up! Ahm twyin' to wead!" He yelled at him.

"Honey!" Tawna brought him to reality. "Let's get outta here!" And she grabbed his arm as Edmund followed them, still with his wig on flames.

For some reason, the fire sprinklers system didn't work, and Mr. Wednesday was already with his hair on standing. "Go get the extinguishers! NOW!" He ordered to the janitors, and seconds later, all of them started to wipe off the fire in the theater room. It took some braves minutes, but by this time everything was under control. The spectators were all gone, except for Crash who was still laid on the ground. Amelia rushed to him.

"Crash! Crash honey, you alright?" The female bandicoot asked him in worry as she helped her husband to raise up.

"Yeah... I'm still alive, thanks." Crash faintly smiled. The girls, worried about their father's health, also ran until him.

"Dad! Dad, are you okay?" Maya hugged him as Kida did the same.

"I'm all right, Maya." He told her. "Nothing to worry about."

Cade, who has been hidden somewhere else safe from the fire, eventually showed up in front of his parents and sisters. His jacket was a bit burnt on the tips, but other than that, he was safe and sound. However, Mr. Wednesday was pretty pissed. Without changing his marble face, he headed towards Crash and Amelia to tell them a piece of his mind after what he had discovered shortly after the accident.

"Mr. Crash." He called, his tone as severe than the orange bandicoot ever heard from him. "I've discovered that your son used nitroglycerin in his project, one of the most prohibited chemical compounds in school. This way, he ain't going to the Academy of Evil next week... but TOMORROW!"

Crash seemed to pass through a wall of bricks; even more for Amelia, who've never thought in her thirty-nine years of life that her son would end up in such horrendous school. But what was done, was done. Mr. Wednesday finished what he had to say, and still grumpy for knowing that his science fair failed miserably, he disappeared through that complete mess.

Cade lowered his ears, cringing. To make things a little better than they were, he decided to speak.

"Well... at least my presentation wasn't so bad, was it?" He smiled at them. Just like he expected, none of them smiled. Crash was full of footmarks on the back side of his black jacket, and he had his sunglasses' armor crooked, as well a lens missing. And Amelia had her expensive red dress full of small burnt holes, and her hair entirely disheveled from the panic. Both were with their arms folded. Cade swallowed.

Now he wished he'd take those words back...


	8. Revelations

**Chapter 8**

On the way back home, nobody opened their mouth. After what they've witnessed during the science fair, utter disappointment suddenly fell up to their faces; Crash and Amelia were soundless like if they were in a mass, and Cade, much for his misfortune, felt that, his head seeming to shrink down his shoulders while sitting in the middle of the three back seats. His sisters, each one sat by his sides, were also disappointed, but they weren't mad at him. After all, it wasn't anyone's fault that the experiment ended in the wrong way, right? Well, that was what the teenage bandicoot had in his defense, but for some reason it wasn't just a mere accident to the adult bandicoots. Cade sighed, and trying real hard to enliven his parents' mood, he thought that talking to them would be something.

"Hey, come on..." He slightly lowered his ears. "Don't be mad at me... it-it was just an accident..." The more he talked, the more they seemed to be in another world. Cade sighed again. "Ok, I know I used nitroglycerin, which I really _shouldn't_ have used that in my project and all... but please-"

Suddenly, Crash placed his foot on the brakes, and the jeep stopped in a slight jolt. After parking the vehicle right in front of the garage, Cade, Maya and Kida removed the safety belts and left their seats, in such silence that they didn't even demand more questions from each other. Crash took the house keys from his pocket, put them inside the lock to open the door, and then entered with the rest of the family following his steps.

Their home sweet home was also ominously silent, even with the power on. Cade knew that he'd get one of his parents quite soon; but like it was always been, he'd be expecting more from his mother, since the fact that she was never so playful like his father was. But tonight, it would be different.

As the Bandicoot family reached to the small hallway which led up to the living room and the kitchen, plus the stairs to the young bandicoots' bedrooms, Cade reconsidered to discreetly step towards the stairs so that he could escape from the situation, but then his moment of strategy got vanished as Crash placed a hand on his shoulder. He wasn't happy, nor was he angry - just disappointed. Amelia understood his gesture and, turning her face to her daughters, she said.

"Maya, Kida, go to your rooms while we're going to have a conversation with your brother." She simply told them. Both nodded. Kida hesitated for a second, thinking on giving her older brother a comfort hug - but Maya held her other hand to start climbing the stairs so that they couldn't bother them with their presence. After his sisters were gone, Cade had another very bad feeling that this wouldn't end so well.

Although Crash hasn't said a single word since they left the highschool, he yawned out of tiredness as he removed his motorcycle jacket due to the heat. However, his expression didn't change when Amelia told the teenage bandicoot to sit on the couch of the living room, while his own parents were the only ones to stand right in front of him, both with their arms crossed and a static expression pasted on their faces. Great, it was 'speech time' now.

"Crash Bandicoot Junior, do you have anything to say about what happened in this science fair?" Amelia spoke firstly. Her tone seemed normal for his ears, at least for now.

"No."

"How do you mean by _no_?"

"I did nothing." Cade defended himself. "It was just an accident, okay? I already said sorry. What part didn't you guys understand?"

"I'll tell you what part we didn't understand." Crash, eventually, talked. "Why did you use _nitro_ in school, even when you perfectly knew that it was strictly forbidden?"

Cade stopped responding for some brave moments, wondering and researching for a straight answer.

"I just felt like to."

"So you just felt like blowing the entire city by your own will?" Amelia frowned an eyebrow.

"Not exactly-"

"Apparently it was." Crash agreed.

"You guys are just taking things _way_ too seriously." Cade slightly retorted, his legs stretched and his arms folded, with his unusual eyes studying each one of them in vexation. "First of all, my project occurred perfectly fine with that chemical compound right before the second 'explosion', and I don't have fault that it happened because it wasn't even a part of my plan. But if it wasn't for Ty who decided to slip his giant foot on that stupid _freaking_ soap on the stage, none of this would've happened!"

"We're not talking about him, honey, we're talking about _you_." Amelia countered. "Why did you want to use nitro when there's plenty of other chemical compounds instead? Is it because you simply wanted to blow up the principal's head for not liking him? Or because you wanted to show all of those people that you're out of your mind?"

"I am not insane."

"Then why did you do it?"

"Because I like nitro!" Cade shouted, annoyed. "I love explosives since... ever! You guys just fooled yourselves by thinking that I've changed, but I didn't!"

"And thanks to that 'I won't change my behaviour' thing that you're going to Academy of Evil right in the next morning." Crash concluded, glaring into his son's eyes.

The rebellious bandicoot scoffed. "So? It's just a school just like any other... what else?"

"What _else_?" He almost laughed. "Just wait until you get there and then tell me."

"Why? Is it because of your craze of wanting me to be a hero like you were and being afraid of the oh-so-called evil?" Cade sneered.

The way his tone sounded like complete mockery flew in the face of Crash; he immobilized for a moment, lost into his deep thoughts before even using his tongue to speak.

"Don't talk to me in that tone, you hear me?" Crash warned, somewhat threatened. Cade enjoyed that, snickering.

"Make me."

"You're already made."

"Sure, you're my father."

"Be careful what you're _saying_, young man..."

The situation was getting hotter. Amelia, unfortunately for her sake, was in the middle of the two males - and she already sensed at first sight that this would finish in a tantrum.

"Why should I be careful on saying things? I'm not a liar. All I said was true - you _aren't_ a real hero. Twenty years or so ago perhaps you were, but now it's long gone."

"That isn't true and you know it."

"Dad, all you said to me were stories. They're not real."

"Not _real_?" Crash almost lost his mind. "There's evidences proving that!"

"Evidences? What evidences?" Cade shrugged. "You always told me that you fought against a mad scientist, but you never mentioned his name and I don't see anyone talking about that subject anymore. In fact, I think the whole society forgot your deeds - and why? Because everyone's saved, they don't need a hero anymore. It's over."

"But-"

"And you're just too clumsy and too lazy to even save an old lady on the street. Simple as that."

His sentence sounded like a knife to Amelia's ears.

"Cade!" She yelled.

Despite being hurt inside, Crash pretended that his words didn't affect him.

"If I was in your shoes, I'd have been grateful to have a home and a nice family like you have at this moment - but you're just too selfish to realize it." He declared.

"Selfish?" Cade laughed. "You know, is not that I've asked any of you to be born..."

"Actually, you only ended up existing because I forgot to put a contraceptive." Crash smiled.

Amelia lost her breath for a second.

"Crash!"

"Woah!" Cade pretended to be amazed. "What a great backstory of mine! Wow! No wonder you guys love me so much... was I also born in a taxi? I wouldn't be surprised if I was!" He shouted at Crash.

"You two, stop it already!" The female bandicoot tried her hardest to stop the burning argument, but no effect.

"Oh, now you didn't like to hear the truth..." Crash sneered. "Well, I did warn you to be careful on your speechs, but once again, you didn't care. No, wait, you _never_ care. You never listened to me for once, hence the reason why you always get into trouble, and I'm not even talking about the nitro story. You always saw me as a clown figure for being clumsy and whatnot, and you always preferred to be with your friends over me - is it true, or false?"

Cade finally shut himself. He didn't know what to say; everything that the adult bandicoot had stated until now was, in reality, the truth. And suddenly, he felt a spine of regret dominating his soul in such way that he wanted to cry. But, instead, he exchanged a painful sigh and an unique glare into his greenish eyes that Crash will never forget.

"Maybe you should've chosen to keep as a hero than having a family - you would've been a lot happier without me."

Finishing the conversation, the teenage bandicoot walked past the orange bandicoot without looking at him, and started climbing the stairs until his room. Amelia urged.

"Cade, please, we didn't-"

"If you call me for dinner, I won't come. I'm not hungry." He replied in an emotionless voice, and soon disappeared through the hallway as he quickly reached to his bedroom and closed the door in a tremendous way. Crash stood in the exact spot, so paralyzed that he seemed an authentic statue standing there. Stuck in between worries and pressure, and without opening more his mouth for more needless and insulting jokes, he headed towards the same couch his son was sat formerly, and lied himself on it so that he could try to relax his numb mind at least for a bit. Numb... so numb that he even forgot to take out his brand new sunglasses with a broken lens.

Broken. That was all he was now... broken.

"(What have I done...?)"

* * *

_Heh... sorry about this chapter being overly dramatic, folks. I suck at writing arguments, so I'm sorry if this isn't one of the best chapters - I tried to make a valid point here, but still, I'm not satisfied of how this turned out. Oh well, the next one will become better, I hope. See you guys around._


	9. Old Rivals, New Dilemmas

**Chapter 9**

His head was buried in the pillow. Could've this been any worse? It just seemed like the whole world was against him; Cade muttered between his breaths, his body motionless upon his bed, and lonely when it came to his lively room, full of huge posters he has collected from his favourite rock bands, present at every corner to enliven his mood for a bit. But, for some reason, they didn't work. The teenage bandicoot was whether suffering from stress attack, or he really was in the wrong place in the wrong time.

Cade never understood why parents used to get worried and angry at the most petty things; it was just a nitro explosion that didn't occur well, so what? Were they going to jump off the bridge just because of that? Please. It's not that their 'beloved' son has killed the entire city, although he couldn't deny that it was in fact a dangerous chemistry to begin with. Still, was it a motive enough to let they down like _this_?

Pff, they were only overreacting, for sure. No hero like his father, who constantly stated that he was in past, would care for such stupid thing. Or, better, _why_ would he care so much about his son's stupidities? Doesn't he have any other important things to do? Sometimes the teenage bandicoot even wished he'd just be a street kid, living his own freedom at his best in the _way_ he how and when wanted it, without having anyone systematically telling him to 'stop this and stop that', and especially doing the tedious and pointless homework for school. But...

Cade interrupted his deep thoughts for a moment, sighing. It wasn't worth on wasting his small brain on that subject anymore. Picking up his cell phone which was patiently waiting on his bedside table, he decided that phoning to his friend would be the best remedy for his problems.

_"(Hello?)_" Ty answered the call while he was doing his math homework on his desk. _"(Oh, hi Cade.)_" His tone turned out concerned. _"(How has been your... speech time with your parents?)_"

"Pretty bad." Cade replied in a non-impressive voice. "Dude, I'm getting tired of this."

_"(How do you mean?)_"

"Sometimes I wish I'd just run away."

_"(What?)_"

"You know what I mean!" He shouted, a bit annoyed. He sighed again. "Sorry for screaming at you for no reason, Ty. And for blaming you for the failure of our project, too."

_"(It's all right, I'm accustomed anyway.)_" The tasmanian tiger smiled. _"(But seriously, man, what's wrong? Your dad grounded you?)_"

"Nah, he didn't ground me this time." Cade said. "I mean, he barely grounds me anyway... my mom is more of that type. But that's not what is bothering me..."

* * *

"(Great Crash Bandicoot, what gave you in the head?)" Crash thought to himself while climbing up the stairs. "(You must be really stupid to add that contraception story right in the tip of the tongue! He's still a kid, he's not mature enough to understand and face these things in life... what was I thinking?)"

Regretful, Crash decided to apologize to his son for his inappropriate acts. After eventually achieving to the young bandicoot's bedroom door, he paused for a moment to give a deep breath and think of a decent way to apologize him.

"Hey, huh... I know you don't wanna talk to me, because I know I also went too far from the edge, and I... I've come here to tell you that I'm sorry for what I've said, and that I never meant to hurt you." Crash rehearsed in a low voice. Convinced that he was ready to say it, Crash was about to place his hand on the knob but, less than a second from opening the door, he heard Cade's voice through the wall. Without taking too long to realize that he was talking to someone, Crash stopped moving the knob and began to listen to his sentences carefully, in complete silence.

"Look Ty, I love my father and all, but he..." Cade paused. "He's nobody."

The adult bandicoot's green eyes widened simultaneously.

"The only reason why I stay away from him and always manage myself to go outside is not because I don't like him... he just... embarrasses me. His goofy smile, his clumsiness, his silly 'accidents', all that stuff he does make me feel stupid for recalling the fact that I _am_ his son, and when other people look at me in mockery because of him..." The teenage bandicoot sighed. "...I sometimes wish he was somebody else I didn't know."

Crash lowered his ears, leaning his back against the door, mute.

"He might've been a great hero, but stories are stories. They're supposed to be fake. Nothing else."

He just couldn't stand being there anymore. Swallowed into his own regret, Crash left the door without even trying to speak to him, and then walked away.

"_(Come on Cade, don't you think you're overreacting a little?)" _Ty declared. _"(I personally find Mr. Crash an awesome person. I mean, sure, he's definitely not the best dad ever, but there's no perfect parents or family. We all have flaws. I love my own one, but if I could, I'd switch mine with yours, but I can't. Plus, he's a humorous person with a heart of gold, and that's what makes him my idol. Remember that airport scene, when we were going to Hawaii for a few days, your dad forgot to take out his jetpack from his back and he couldn't get in because of the alarm that was always shouting out?)_" He added. "_(It was hilarious!)"_

"Yeah, I remember it just like yesterday." Cade laughed, but then it faded. "I guess you're right, dude. I shouldn't have told him some things... I better apologize."

_"(That's what I wanted to hear.)_" Ty fondly smiled. "_(Just give your old man a break, will ya?)_" Suddenly, he heard Tiny calling him from the stairs. _"(I-I better hung up now, ok? Or else my father will eat me alive... well, see ya!)_"

He turned off. Dropping the cell phone beside him, Cade sighed one last time to clear his troubled mind and, shortly after, decided to eventually lift up from his bed and head himself towards the stairs, calling his name throughout the house so that he could hear it. But, even after finishing climbing down the steps and waiting quietly in the hallway of the entrance, Crash never showed up at his presence, and the young teenage bandicoot soon felt that something wasn't just right.

"Dad...?"

* * *

"Ah... _Achooo!_"

"N. Gin, shut your nose! Someone might discover us!"

Hiding inside a bush at a gas station, N. Tropy and N. Gin were impatiently awaiting for their old archenemy to show up for hours. Freezing in a cold ordinary night, the two evil scientists weren't too far from changing their minds on leaving that hellish place.

"If this wasn't for that stupid old man, none of us would have been here waiting for some bandicoot to fall from the sky!" N. Tropy protested, undertone. "And why the hell did you choose a gas station?"

"Because I'm _sensing_ that the bandicoot will appear right here." N. Gin replied, rolling his eyes at him.

"Oh really?" He began to sneer. "And why I should trust your 'instincts'? That still doesn't change the fact that we're freezing to death! I even forgot to bring my comfy shawl!"

"And what do you want me to do now? Turn me into a heater?" N. Gin sneered back.

All of a sudden, the two scientists hearkened a motorcycle sound coming from the distance. Immediately hiding further into the bush, a recognizable individual has showed up through the darkness of the night with the headlights on. With their eyes peeled, the guy in the black helmet and jacket parked his vehicle next to the gas station, rising up from the seat as he walked a few steps forward so that he could start putting the gasoline into the motorcycle. But in the moment he withdrew his helmet, at long last, his identity was automatically clear - it was Crash Bandicoot himself.

"It's him!" N. Tropy exclaimed in surprise, trying his hardest to not make his deep voice noticed. "Finally!"

"I told you that he'd appear here." N. Gin retorted.

"Yeah yeah, whatever. Just hurry up your rocket brain and help me to catch him effectively." The master of time ordered, slowing lifting up from the bush as he and N. Gin started to walk towards the bandicoot while he was still unaware.

Through all those annoying whispers from behind his back, Crash was still absent-minded from the hazards while being somewhere in another world. Silently depressed after what he has heard from events ago, the adult bandicoot was with a quite unusual expression on his face. Starting to put gasoline into his motorbike, with his eyes glued to the fill tank for quite a while, he began to think over and over again.

"(Why did Cade say those things behind my back?)" A voice in his consciousness spoke, letting him to be even more distraught in regards to the subject. "(Am I really a bad father? Don't I love my own children enough, or in the way I'm supposed to? Am I really a clown, a _nobody_, a ridiculous figure who always embarrasses him just... just for who I am?)"

Suddenly, a second after he finished filling the tank, someone abruptly caught him during the time he was unwarned, seizing his own hands as Crash eventually woke up to the reality and reacted, attempting to attack the unknown enemy in defense. As soon as the adult bandicoot could finally punch the blue-skinned scientist away to the ground, his facial expression altered completely.

"N. Tropy!?" Crash shouted, in utter shock. With his mind halted for some but thin instants, wandering through endless of unanswered questions, he accidentally forgot another member who was also part of the team - and, barely in the moment the bandicoot finally turned back his head in response of an instinctive impulse, N. Gin hit him in the forehead with a bough, so fiercely that it even opened a large wound right on his front head, leading his mental condition to fall into unconsciousness as he also fell to the ground like a puppet. Happy to know that he did something useful at long last, N. Gin leaped out in euphoria.

"I killed him! YES!" The short scientist shouted out loud.

"He's just unconscious, you idiot." N. Tropy scowled. To make sure that no one was watching them, N. Tropy turned his face to see if the guy of the gas station's shop was supervising on them but, by chance, he was more focused on reading a magazine while listening to music with huge headphones on his ears. N. Tropy smirked.

"C'mon N. Gin, let's take the bandicoot out here as soon as possible before someone else freaks out." He told him, holding Crash's arms as N. Gin held his legs instead.

"With my pleasure, sir." And he laughed.


	10. The Plan Unfolds

**Chapter 10**

"Why your father's taking so long?" Amelia inquired to the trio, at long last.

The dining room was empty and silent in such way that their mom's voice seemed to echo throughout the house, with the table full of delicious dishes starting to get cold. What an uncanny mystery; why their father was taking longer than usual, and where was he now? Apparently, the answer never seemed to fall from the skies to reply their wonders. During their hungry wait before eating, Maya thought that her father could have _possibly_ fell asleep while stopping at somewhere to reflect, but that concept was a bit too off from the reality to be true. Cade, on the other hand, couldn't think with stomach aches torturing his soul for haven't been eating anything for hours, with his head below his shoulders and his arms holding his belly. And Kida, who also missed her daddy and was hungry as a wolf, was playing with her bunny doll all of this time so that she could be absent-minded from the situation.

"He told me that he was going to the gas station to refuel his motorbike, and I even tried to call him several times, but his phone always ended hanging up." Amelia told them, starting to get desperate not only because she was hungry as well, but because she also knew that something wrong was going on.

"Don't worry mom, he'll come." Maya comforted her, trying her best to not let her down.

"Yeah, I'm getting worried about him, too." Cade remarked. "It's just not usual from him to not answer your calls."

"What if he has been robbed?" The female teenage bandicoot suggested. "It's a high possibility."

"Please, who would rob dad?" He urged. "Let's be realistic here; he barely has ten bucks in his wallet, unless they wanted to steal his credit card."

"You're right."

"I don't know... I'm sensing it's something worse than that." Amelia said, and without having anything in mind to add, she gave a deep breath. "Let's start eating, kids. The food is freezing."

And so everyone did, surrounded by suspicion and doubts, as they slowly turned their heads at the only empty plate.

* * *

"Ouch... oww... sweet wumpa o' mine, where the heck am I?"

Still a bit dizzy from the unforeseen knock, Crash finally started to wake up as his eyes even hurt while opening up. With a large wound marked right through his forehead, the adult bandicoot hadn't an idea on where he could've been now, slowly recovering his senses until he realized that he was in an unknown dark room, surrounded by machines that were barely visible at first sight, but at the same time somewhat recognizable due to their sounds. What was this, a kind of unfunny prank? He felt threatened, incapable to even recall what kind of this place he has been in the past, while trying to catch some attention by calling whoever that would be present at the moment.

"Hello?" Crash spoke, his voice echoing throughout that sinister chamber. "_Hello_?" He repeated. "Is anybody here?"

At long last, a recognizable voice answered his calls. Crash frowned, his ears twitching against his skull in menace, whose reaction would later disappear not for too long - when he discovers that, the person who answered him, turning his face at him while sitting on his gray lab chair to clear his identity, was actually his old archenemy scientist, Dr. Neo Cortex.

"Cortex?!" The adult bandicoot cried out, completely amazed at such inopportune situation. The scientist, on the other hand, couldn't help but give him his good old evil laugh.

"Crash! My adorable, _favourite_ archenemy!" Cortex shouted out, which, much for the bandicoot's unexpected surprise, he seemed way too happy... or wasn't he? "Oh! How I missed you! Give me a big hug!" He kept on until, a second before he'd touch Crash, he merely stopped to clean his gloves on his lab coat. "Oops, sorry, I forgot that I put that anti-flea spray on me." He then coughed, keeping his silly but malicious smile on his face.

"Is... is that really _you_?" Crash stood stoned, scowling at the scientist like if he has never known him that way before.

"No! I'm his great-grandfather who returned from my grave!" He sneered. "Of course I am still Doctor Neo Periwinkle Cortex! A bit older, but still with brains!" He answered him.

"That's... nice." Crash smiled in turn. "Well, can I return now, Santa? I have some... you know, business to take care of..."

Cortex fell in laughter again. "You, going _home_? Oh, you silly bandicoot... you and your sarcasm failure, looks like you haven't changed anything at all."

"Why would I? At least I don't look insane like you are... now." He slightly smirked.

"Thank those guys from the prison you put me in for giving those 'anti-evil' depression pills for sixteen years in a row." Cortex told him. "Anyway," The scientist began to walk around Crash, talking to him at pleasure at the same time. "You may be already wondering to yourself why I kidnapped you out of the blue... well you see, Crash, I got tired of being inside that hellish prison and see you living your 'happily ever after' life, so I asked to myself; why not switch roles for a while? Therefore, I eventually planned an efficient scheme to get me out of there, and _badabin-badabon!_, here I am with you as my hostage."

"Hostage?" Crash laughed, frowning an eyebrow. "I'm only tied to a couple of ropes on a chair."

"How I love your naiveness." Cortex added. Suddenly, two minions appeared behind the marsupial, who also revealed to be N. Tropy and N. Gin themselves.

"What are we going to do with the skunk, Cortex?" The master of time inquired, placing his gigantic tuning fork close to Crash's neck. "Should I electrify him and toss him to the hounds?"

Contemplative, Cortex rubbed his gray beard with his finger, deciding whether he was useful or not. "No, leave the bandicoot exactly where he is now." He said. "I think telling him our evil little secret won't hurt anybody..."

* * *

The next morning arrived pretty slowly. Incredibly, none of the three young bandicoots could rest peacefully that night. The question on where their father could be just didn't allow their own eyes to close and sleep; to them, it was an intriguing yet perpetual maze.

As soon as the twins woke up and quickly dressed their clothes to not miss the bus, it was a record time to achieve the kitchen with their breakfast already ready. Pancakes made by their mother, once Cade and Maya eventually recalled the fact that their father simply didn't show up last night. Remarkably, Kida also woke up, coming close by her older siblings not too long after waking up, still dressed in her one-piece pink pajamas, with slight dark circles under her eyes for not sleeping almost anything as well.

Noticing that their mother wasn't there, Maya frowned her auburn eyebrows in worry.

"Hey Cade, did you see mom?" She asked her brother just in case.

"Yeah, she's outside... picking up wet clothes." He pointed his finger at the window, while both saw Amelia picking the clothes from the hanger into the basket after a rainy night, with a quite upset face.

"It's not usual from her to pick clothes right in the morning..." Maya observed.

"If dad ever had the chance to return home by now, I bet she'd give him one of those famous slaps and then both yell at each other like an elderly couple. You know, just like they did once in a Pizza Hut restaurant." Cade remarked.

"Yeah..." She sighed. "Well, what about if we start eating the breakfast? I don't think mom's hungry, after all."

The trio sat on their seats and began to eat the pancakes. Indeed, they were different, but not bad at all. Cade felt a bit discouraged, not because of his old man's disappearance, but because he was already heading to a new - and, highly perhaps -, a worse school within minutes. Maya understood her brother and patted his back to cheer him up.

"Hey, don't worry." The red-haired teenage bandicoot smiled. "I'm sure going to Academy of Evil ain't so bad. You'll get accustomed to it, just like you always did."

Cade smiled in turn. "Thanks, sis." He said. "I'm just kinda regretful for never listening to dad. What if he was right?"

"We all make mistakes, Cade." Maya told him. "Sure, you should've listened to him at least for a few times, but you now learned your lesson, right?"

"Yeah, I suppose." He shrugged.

In the time the twins stayed quiet, Kida spotted the TV remote control near her plate. Once she was bored and needed some motivation from somewhere, Kida held the remote control, typing the two numbers she remembered to turn on the _BandiNews_ channel. But, merely by chance, the news that appeared through the TV screen caught their attention after what they began to watch right in front of their eyes.

_"Good morning, ladies and gentlemen from every corner of the Wumpa Islands!"_ One of the two chicken men spoke to the camera, who were the famous television reporters, Chick and Stew. _"Here I am at a gas station, reporting the very rare news that someone who we used to know and worship for the heroic deeds got, apparently, kidnapped yesterday night by some guys who we believe they are... huh... can you help me here, Stew?"_

_ "We believe that the kidnapped victim was Crash Bandicoot, one of the heroes who saved our butts back in the era, by who we also believe to be the minions of Dr. Neo Cortex, that bad guy who everyone hates for thinking that he only went to prison for smoking crack."_

_ "Err... thanks for reporting such wonderful details, Stew."_

_ "Hey, my wife kicked me out of her house this morning."_

_"Sure, sure. Anyway, to prove that our report is actually veritable and not fake like most of our reports are, we have this CCTV video that was recorded in the local time to show you."_

As the video went by through the TV, the young bandicoots' expressions altered completely; they became so shocked in such way that even Maya dropped her fork to the floor.

"I can't believe it! They took dad away!"

"Hey, it's that cyborg dude again! I knew it!"

"Daddy!"

"What is going on here?" Amelia inquired, as she barely stepped inside with the basket full of laundry in her hands. But in the second she turned her face at the TV and saw her beloved husband seriously hurt and being taken away by those she recognized at first sight, it just seemed an old nightmare coming true. Dropping the laundry basket onto the floor, the adult female bandicoot fainted no more or less, making Cade and his sisters to jump from their chairs.

"Mom!" The rebellious teenage bandicoot cried out in surprise, running towards his poor mother who also seemed to be unconscious due to the shock. "Mom, are you okay?" He snapped his fingers to see if she would open her eyes, but in vain.

"It's no use, Cade." Maya shook her head. "She's unconscious. But again, I find it _very_ strange that mom fainted this way... it's just not normal from her."

"Nothing normal is going on around here, Maya." Cade reminded her. "I saw the cyborg helping that blue weirdo guy taking dad to somewhere."

"You mean... the one who ran like a chicken through the street we fought in the other day?" She tried to guess, unsure.

"Yup, that's him. Hundred percent of guarantees, my eyes don't lie."

"So... what are we going to do, then?"

Cade stopped for a moment to produce his crazy thoughts inside his unique mind; he first glanced at the fainted Amelia, and then at his sisters. Brave seconds later, he finally came to a conclusion, smirking as his round nose caught a smell called adventure.

"I think I've got an _excellent_ idea..."

* * *

Still prisoned inside that tedious laboratory, Crash had no choice but listen to the old mad scientist.

"Don't you miss the good old times, Crash?" Cortex asked, continuing on walking around the lab but slowly. "The days where you unfortunately had to kick my genius butt out of my castle, and everybody applauding you like if you were their only real savior? Not even only a little bit that is left?"

He grinned. "Cortex, I think you forgot ever since the beginning of these years that I _have_ changed. I am not that adventurous, undaunted person anymore. In fact, I even left that old life of mine for eternity."

"Oh." Cortex added. "What a pity... I actually liked your old person before. You seemed to be more carefree than you are now. But people always change, don't they?"

"Yeah, I guess..."

Exchanging a devilish smirk on his face, the scientist walked a few steps past Crash, placing his right hand on the bandicoot's left shoulder.

"And that is _what_ I'm going to enjoy to transform your pathetic little family into my obedient, mindless slaves."

Although he whispered that sentence in an almost soundless voice, Crash heard it perfectly, leaping from the ground so abruptly that even the chair went with him.

"Don't you dare it!" Crash growled, showing his canines in threat. Cortex simply laughed, again.

"It's useless to stop me now, Crash. I'm already working on a new, powerful vortex that will hypnotize everyone's minds in order to destroy you - and, even better, with endless power source, once I told you that I got significantly smarter than my old self. The whole city - more importantly, the whole archipelago - will go after you to exterminate, especially your beloved wife and children who will then do hard work for their master, which is me, of course."

"After all you also didn't change one fucking thing."

"Shh - watch your language, bandicoot. There's children reading this."

Crash planned to attack him, but with his hands tied to the chair all the attempts would go without effect. Seconds later, Cortex snapped his fingers.

"N. Tropy!" He called, his tone as impatient as it has always been. "Take the bandicoot to the prison cell, immediately!"

Prison cell? He just must've been kidding. The ex-hero of Wumpa Islands would never go to jail for something he never did; but, nevertheless, the master of time violently broke the ropes, seized the adult bandicoot's hands in a fierce nature, and pushed him like a doll right into the prison cell, after walking through several long meters. Wrathful, Crash confronted Cortex, grasping the bars with his hands.

"At least you have a toilet at your service." Cortex sneered to enliven his archenemy a bit but, like he expected, Crash no longer found his jokes funny.

"I swear, Cortex - dare to touch a fingernail on them and I'll destroy you first."

Oh, how those foolish statements made the scientist to laugh harder.

"Destroy me _first_? Hah! You're not even their Superman anymore, so why bother? I'll remind myself to bring you some fried spiders to... you know, reset your energies. Good luck, bandicoot - you'll need it."

_You'll need it..._

He fucking got that right.


	11. Operation Rescue

**Chapter 11**

After taking their mother and placing her upon her bedroom's bed, Cade, Maya and Kida quietly closed the door, heading towards the basement to discuss the subject together while someone just knocked at the door. Opening it, Maya stood surprised to see a certain tiger who was breathing anxiously at the entrance.

"Guys! Guys, did you just watch what _I_ think it was on the TV?" Tymon avowed, panting, even though that all he did was jumping his house's fence. "Mr. Crash got kidnapped!"

"Ty, you realize that I always watch the news at least _five_ minutes before you do, right?" Cade frowned an eyebrow at him.

"Cade, stop calling him stupid." Maya retorted. "He wants to help us."

"I think I have a hint on where Mr. Crash could possibly be..." He urged, placing a finger under his chin. "My father told me once that he used to work in an ominous island called Cortex Island... he says that is where a mad scientist called Meo - or Neo? - Cortex used to live inside a huge castle, more specifically, a lab."

"Wait a minute - that's the name that the cyborg and the Chicken men said, they even added that my dad used to 'save their butts back in the era'... _what?!_" Cade bursted. "It was all _true_?"

Kida smacked her forehead upon knowing that her eldest brother finally realized it.

"Even if dad could lie, I don't think he was smart enough to do so easily..." Maya added.

"What are we gonna do?" Ty asked. "Should we follow the rules and simply wait until he returns?"

"Return?" Cade scoffed. "Since when _my_ dad knows how to save himself?"

"Well... he did jump from a castle once..." His sister reminded.

"That doesn't count."

"Yeah, but... don't we have school in the first place?" Ty inquired to the teenage bandicoot, eventually clarifying what he really meant to say. Cade put an arm around his shoulder, smirking.

"Ty, Ty, all you do care is about meaningless books with no pictures, don't tell me that you _were_ thinking on going inside that bus..."

"Actually, I, huh-"

"C'mon, fella! Are you a pussy or a tiger?"

Slightly offended by his demand, Ty couldn't help but sigh. "Tiger..."

"That's better." Cade smiled. "Now, come on in..."

* * *

Inside the basement, Cade was displaying his brilliant strategy on a black chalkboard to his only three pupils. Wearing a war helmet on his head to pretend that he was their general, the teenage bandicoot walked past and forth while talking, with a stick in his hand to show every single detail of the plan B.

"We're going to use our 4x4 to drive in direction to the main highway that will lead us to the seaport, then, we'll swim until we reach one of the Cortex Island's beaches, go into the jungle - I won't be responsible for any carnivorous plant deaths though -, pass through Cortex's castle, kick their butts, save dad, return to the jungle - again, I won't be responsible -, swim together until we come back to Wumpa Island, let dad drive the jeep, return home, tell mom that dad has only been lost in the bathroom all of this time and that none of us have been doing stupid stuff, and then we'll enjoy a delicious dinner as a reward. Any questions?"

Ty rose his hand up.

"Yeah, just one. How are we going to achieve until Cortex Island just by swimming? There's sharks in the ocean and we'd presumably take overnight to arrive there."

"Plus, we would die of hypothermia." Maya said.

"Right..." Cade rubbed his chin. "I have another plan B; we're going to use the 4x4 to drive to the main highway that will lead us to the seaport, use dad's old jet boat to reach Cortex Island's beach, go into the jungle, pass through Cortex's castle, kick their butts, save dad, return to the jungle, use the jet boat again to return to Wumpa Island, let dad drive the jeep, return home, tell mom that dad has only been absent-minded on reading Bandiboy magazines and that none of us have been doing any stupid stuff, and then we'll finally enjoy a delighted dinner as a reward. Again, any questions?"

This time, Maya rose hers.

"Is the jet boat capable to carry the _four_ of us at the same time?" She asked. "I just find it a little... too risky."

"Yeah, and why would Mr. Crash read Bandiboy magazines? Won't Mrs. Bandicoot toss him a frying pan when she'll know?" Ty agreed.

Annoyed, Cade hit his head three times on the wall. "Fine! We'll use the 4x4 to drive until the seaport, steal someone's boat, reach Cortex Island, go into the jungle, pass through Cortex's castle and kick their butts, save dad, return to the jungle, use the same boat to return to Wumpa Island, let myself to drive the jeep, return home, tell mom that dad has only been lost in the bathroom and that none of us have been doing stupid things, and _then_ we'll finally enjoy the dinner. So?"

Despite that they had to take a moment of silence to reflect, Maya, Ty and Kida eventually gave him a thumbs up.

"Thank you. Now," Cade made that famous military gesture with his hand. "Let's do it."

* * *

Opening the wide garage door, the young bandicoots and tiger put their hands to work by turning on the 4x4's engine after stealing the car keys. Even bringing their father's good old green bazooka which was only saved for extreme emergencies, Cade and Ty sat on the front seats while Maya and Kida sat on the back ones, placing sunglasses on their eyes to make the situation far more important.

"Ty, turn on the radio." Cade ordered without looking at him, his voice sounding as serious as almost in slow motion. And so the tasmanian tiger obeyed, putting a CD that the two friends have recorded specifically for such unexpected event, until both started shaking their heads upon listening to one of Black Eyed Peas' songs.

_Ha ha ha_  
_ Pump it!_  
_ Ha ha ha_  
_ And pump it (louder)!_  
_ And pump it (louder)!_  
_ And pump it (louder)!_  
_ And pump it-!_

Suddenly, the music went off when Maya abruptly turned off the radio. Offended, the boys couldn't help but scowl at her.

"Maya!" They shouted.

"Why did you do that? That was a classic!" Ty urged.

"That was my favourite song!" Cade protested.

"What in Elvis Presley's name was this?" She folded her arms, also offended. "We're just beginning a mission to save someone seriously, and all you do is shaking your heads while this loud music _is_ trying to wake up mom?"

"She has a point." Ty added.

Cade scoffed. "Fine. I'll remind myself to use _My Head Will Go On_ from Celine Dion next time." He folded his arms, annoyed.

"Huh... didn't you mean, 'My _Heart_ Will Go On'?" Ty corrected.

"You just never understand sarcasm, do you?" Cade rolled his eyes.

"Come on, boys! We don't have the entire day." Maya hurried, returning to the back seat. But seconds before the male teenage bandicoot could put a foot on the accelerator, Maya gave Ty the Wumpa Islands archipelago map to provide them some relevant instructions.

"Here, all the highways and streets are marked in this map." She told him. In return, he smiled.

"Thanks, Maya." Ty blushed slightly. Although Cade noticed that small yet considered insignificant detail, he nevertheless pretended that he didn't see it.

"Destination; Cortex Island!" And he sped up towards the road.

* * *

_**Author's Note: **I'm verily sorry for such delay of updating this story and for this chapter coming out small. I've been busy with other stuff I've been doing at the moment, but I promise you that I'll finish this fanfic in the best way I can this year. Anyway, just let you know that my Crash craze isn't dead yet. Cheers! :3_


	12. Return Of The Mask

**Chapter 12**

"_Cade!_" Tymon screamed, placing his hands right in front of his eyes. "This isn't Grand Theft Auto!"

The black-haired teenage bandicoot was having so much fun passing through all the cars with the gigantic 4x4 that he didn't even hear his friend's pleading. Despite not being impressed at her brother's ridiculous figures, Maya held her laptop forcedly against her stomach in dread, while Kida hugged her older sister for fearing the tremendous speed. They couldn't deny on one thing, though; Cade was always dangerous when it came to this type of things.

"Relax, Ty! You just worry too much!" Cade shouted after he saw the teenage tiger biting his own fingernails.

"Relax?! We can have an accident at any moment!" He urged, bringing one of those shopping bags so that he could do the breathing of emergency. "And you perfectly know that I also get nauseated easily!"

"Cade, if we die, I'll kill you in heaven." Maya warned him with a death stare.

"Don't worry, I'll tell Satan to take me with him."

"Cade!"

"Oww... I'm not feeling well..." Ty avowed as his face was turning green.

"If you wanna throw up, do it in your own bag or do it at my sister." Cade said with a smirk.

"CADE!"

While their arguments kept on during the wild ride, Crunch was exercising at a gym which was located somewhere in the middle of the city, until he spotted some familiar faces driving insanely through the streets.

"What tha..." Crunch frowned, running outside to assure himself he wasn't hallucinating. "Is that my nephew, my two nieces, and that strange little hypochondriac Tiny driving Crash's _jeep_?" He widened his eyes.

"Yeah, the news reported this morning that Crash Bandicoot has been kidnapped since yesterday..." One of his gym companions told him.

"What! How could I miss it?! I must warn Coco!" He urged, picking up his mobile phone that was inside his military pants' pocket. "Hey, Coco! I know you normally don't like flash news, but you will lose your head when I'll tell you this..."

"Are we still too far from the seaport?" Maya asked Ty, who had the map in his hands.

"No, just a few more kilometers and we'll be-"

"RED SEMAPHORE!"

Cade bluntly pressed the brakes upon hearing his sister's loud shouting. Thankfully the 4x4 stopped a few centimeters away from the traffic lights and the crosswalk, but still scared the hell out of the teenage bandicoot.

"Geez, Maya! It's just a stupid street signal!" Cade frowned at her.

"Oh, thank god!" Ty sighed in true relief.

"Well I'm sorry if I am boring, but rules are rules and I don't wanna run over everybody." She folded her arms. As they waited almost two minutes for the traffic light to turn green, another car passed by them and stopped, opening the side window to allow some air as an old lady showed up to be the driver. To spend some of this tedious waiting time, Cade decided to catch some attention from that aged lady.

"Booyah, grandma." In the second the old lady turned her head at him, Cade lowered his sunglasses, showing his eyes and his eyebrows dancing up and down. "Booyah!"

With a _WTF_ expression pasted on her face, Cade drove the jeep forwards at high speed in the moment the traffic light barely turned green, and kept laughing to himself about the way that elderly lady scowled at him.

"What was that for?" Maya inquired her brother.

"Boredom." He answered.

Some minutes later, the teenage crew hearkened an acquainted yet unfortunate sound; the police, who was now chasing them while driving a police car.

"It's the cops!" Ty startled. "What are we gonna do?"

"No problem, I have a plan." Cade ensured after he glanced into the rearview mirror. Meanwhile, the two cops inside the police car were chatting.

"This is crazy; first we have teenagers riding motocross bikes on the street sidewalks like it's no big deal, and now we have here a bunch of minors driving a 4x4. What are these parents smoking or drinking nowadays?" One of them asked the other while drinking a bottle of coffee.

"I dunno, sir..." The other cop shrugged. "..._Red Bull_?"

"Faster!" Ty prayed as he bit further his nails. "I don't wanna end in a police apartment and my father giving me three months of laundry punishment!"

"We're almost there!"

Reaching out the Wumpa Island's main seaport at long last, Cade put his scheme to work as he quickly turned his head at Maya.

"Maya, use the bazooka!" He ordered. Maya scowled at him.

"_What?_ Now you want me to finish them up?"

"No! Just frighten them!" Cade clarified.

"Hmm, I wonder what they bring inside that 4x4, too..." The same cop who asked that question before inquired his fellow again.

"It must certainly be some kind of drugs, or even those erotic magazines they love so much to look at..." He suggested. In the minute that Maya finally held the bazooka and turned herself at the police car, aiming the precise bazooka at both the police officers, panic instantly blasted.

"OR A BAZOOKA!" The two yelled at the same time.

"Listen!" Maya shouted. "We won't hurt you if you stop chasing us!"

"They're smugglers!" One of the cops cried out.

"I knew this day would come!" The other also cried as he hugged him.

"Cade, watch out!" Ty yelled as he pointed his finger at the very approaching ocean.

"Whoa!" He momentarily turned the jeep to the left side which, much to the two cops' dismay, they hadn't time to turn around as well.

"Uh, oh..." And they screamed hysterically until they fell to the water.

Unable to control the steering wheel out of a sudden, and watching the boundless Pacific Ocean coming closer to him, Cade didn't think twice before putting a foot on the brakes, which made the jeep crawl all the way through until it would eventually stop just a centimeter and half away from falling into it. After that, everyone took a long, deep breath.

"At last... we're saved." Maya sighed as Kida nodded in agreement.

"Cade, I usually don't disagree with you, but I don't think you will ever get the driving license." Ty remarked, still a bit queasy himself.

"Look! There's a boat!" The black-haired teenage bandicoot pointed at one that was located right at the bottom. Bringing the bazooka and other needed stuff while leaving the 4x4 at the port, the crew ran until it, picking the oars as they finally started to row so that they could reach Cortex Island.

"You know what?" The fellow, still submerged in the water, avowed to the cop as both watched them rowing away. "I'll stop chasing 4x4 driving kids next time..."

* * *

It was already afternoon when the crew arrived to Cortex Island. Their arms were hurting badly, since rowing endlessly through such long distance sure tired them off. Staying at the beach for some hours to relax and pick up some fruits to not leave them starving, the night was slowly falling as the sky was already becoming obscure, which began to interfere the young bandicoots and tiger's quest throughout the hazardous jungle.

"C-C-Cade," Tymon stuttered, quivering his whole body as he continued on following him. "W-What are these freaky sounds I'm hearing?"

"They're owls." Cade replied no more or less, since he seemed completely indifferent towards the situation.

"There are owls in the jungle?" He frowned.

"Cade, I don't think we'll be able to do it today..." Maya said, stopping several times to rest once she was weary enough after so much adventure. Kida, on the other hand, had still energy inside her as she was going after a random butterfly.

"Well, we could sleep tonight, but then you'd have to face those nasty carnivorous plants, so..."

"Ok, ok! I've made up my mind!" Maya changed ideas since she was actually scared of being eaten by those ugly plants.

"Where's the bathroom?" Ty inquired again as he was doing that urgent 'I-need-to-pee' dance.

"Dude, we're in the middle of a _jungle_, and you ask me where's the WC?" Cade scowled at him.

"But I'm afflicted!" He begged.

"Then do it on the ground, where else?"

"And what if somebody watches me?"

Cade folded his arms, staring at him with an 'are-you-seriously-kidding-me' face.

"Never mind." Ty ridiculously smiled, running immediately to somewhere else hidden from the bandicoots.

A minute or two later, Maya's expression altered for complete as she noticed something. "Cade, have you seen Kida?" She asked.

"Not for a little while... why?" Cade asked in turn, also puzzled.

"I don't know! She was around here some moments ago, and now I don't see her anywhere." Maya panicked.

"Don't tell me that we've lost her somewhere in this colossal jungle..."

"Yup, we did."

At long last, Ty finally appeared, panting. "Sorry for the long wait, guys, I couldn't find the right spot so I took longer than I expected."

"Ty, there's no time for explanations." Maya avowed, uneasy. "We have lost Kida!"

"What?! Oh no..." He said in a discouraged tone. "She has been caught by a carnivorous plant!"

Cade slapped his face. "Shut up, man! If she had been caught by that thing, she would've screamed for help!" He told him.

"You're right." Ty rubbed his cheek. "But where would she go?"

Turning their heads at every single corner, there was no signal of the little bandicoot to be sight of yet. Searching for her everywhere, Cade, Maya and Ty walked several meters back and forth and left to the right, but no matter how many times they called her name out loud and tried to search through the monstrous and savage weed, it seemed almost impossible to find her elsewhere.

"Kida!" Maya shouted repeatedly. "Where are you?"

"She mustn't have gone too far..." Cade said, scratching his mohawk in doubt.

"I'm having a bad feeling about this..." Ty whispered.

Suddenly, they hearkened someone passing through the enormous leaves at an incredible speed. Tymon, who was already shivering in fear, hugged Maya unconsciously.

"Did you guys hear it?" Cade asked as he raised his ears in alarm.

"I told you that we weren't the only ones in this jungle!" Ty urged.

"Shh, quiet!" Maya ordered. Brief moments later, they heard the exact same sound again, and the crew kept their eyes peeled until...

"A FLYING MASK!"

Upon hearing the teenage tiger's girly scream, Cade and Maya also screamed in terror while sighting a flying wooden mask right in front of their noses. Its yellow eyes were glowing, as well its coloured feathers that could be seen in the dark. Threatened, Cade picked up a random bough that was on the ground.

"Stay away, you monster!" He demanded in menace, his ears twitching against his skull. "Where's my little sister?!"

As the mask flew a bit more closer to the bandicoots, its expression was anything but threatening - when a friendly smile had crossed its lips as Kida eventually showed up next to the mask, safe and sound, it seemed to calm down the three a little bit.

"Kida!" Maya smiled, hugging her. "You're okay!"

Ty didn't faint for a second after so much halloween.

"Who... are you?" Cade inquired the mask, who has slowly lowered the bough back to where it was. "And why did you protect our sister while we were looking for her?"

Since it was already waiting for such coming question from the young bandicoot, the mask continued smiling. "You children don't remember me?"

His unique tone of voice touched Maya's head like a lightning. "...Aku Aku? Is that you?"

"Apu who?"

She turned at her brother. "Aku Aku! Our ancient spirit mask that used to live with us when we were kids, and who used to tell us those stories every afternoon? Dad's father figure? _Grandpa_?"

After trying to recall who he was for several times, Cade finally got it. "Oh yeah! It's you!"

"Never saw him in my life before..." Ty denied.

"I would've been surprised if you _at least_ remembered me, Cade." Aku Aku laughed. "Look at how much you three have grown... time really flies fast."

"Aku Aku, why did you leave us?" Maya asked.

"It's a long story, Maya. Things going on Hyperspace Temple haven't been easy, and now I've received the terrible news that your father has been kidnapped by the evil Dr. Cortex."

"Yeah, we know." Cade affirmed. "In fact, we were already heading to the castle."

"Really? The four of you left your homes and came until here to save Crash all by yourselves?" Aku Aku suspiciously asked. "Well, I've never seen such strong determination coming from you, my children. But nevertheless, we must defeat Cortex before he dominates our world all over again, and before it comes too late."

"So... any new particular plans in mind, Aku?" The male teenage bandicoot offered. Aku Aku smiled, approaching to the crew so that they could discuss the plan close to each other's ears.

"Listen carefully and follow every instruction I'm going to say..."


End file.
